Daily Archives: December 9, 2024

EA makes photosensitivity and speech recognition tech patents open-source, adding to a pile of accessibility patents already there

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In 2021, EA made a pledge to let the wider game industry use its accessibility-related patents at no cost, and now the publisher has added 23 new patents to its lineup.

As of today, third parties can freely use patented technology such as improved speech recognition, simplified speech tech in games, and the ability to create more personalized speech. The broad aim is for this tech to assist players with speech disabilities or those who need help verbally expressing themselves.

For developers, EA suggests they could use this technology to “make it possible for those players’ speech to be more effectively recognized and reflected in-game in a way that is representative of their age, emotion, language and speaking style.”

Another patent highlighted is an internal plugin for Unreal Engine 5 that enables in-engine use of EA’s previously open-sourced photosensitivity analysis tech, IRIS. The plugin now allows developers to catch potential photosensitivity issues in-engine and real-time as they run their games.

“The sooner you start testing, the sooner you find potential issues,” said IRIS engineer Blanca Macazaga Zuaz. According to her, not many free or easy-to-use tools for photosensitivity analysis were available prior to IRIS. The free access takes down two barriers with one stone, which she called an “incredible feeling.”

Previously, the Madden and Dragon Age publisher made technologies like Apex Legends’ ping system and voice controls for NPCs free-use. The decision is all the more notable, as the industry’s accessibility strides have mainly concerned controllers or options in specific games, such as colorblind modes and skipping puzzles.

Kerry Hopkins, EA’s SVP of global affairs, explained this new batch of open-source patents “encourages the industry to work together to make video games more inclusive by removing unintended barriers to access.”

Along with the patents, EA said its PQI team is running accessible design workshops, and expanding its testing capabilities “to ensure we are always designing with accessibility in mind. More to come soon!”

You can see EA’s newly updated crop of free-use accessibility patents here.

Source: EA makes photosensitivity and speech recognition tech patents open-source

A new way to entangle Particles from a distance

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[…] Traditionally, entanglement is achieved through local interactions or via entanglement swapping, where entanglement at a distance is generated through previously established entanglement and Bell-state measurements. However, the precise requirements enabling the generation of quantum entanglement without traditional local interactions remain less explored. Here, we demonstrate that independent particles can be entangled without the need for direct interaction, prior established entanglement, or Bell-state measurements, by exploiting the indistinguishability of the origins of photon pairs. Our demonstrations challenge the long-standing belief that the prior generation and measurement of entanglement are necessary prerequisites for generating entanglement between independent particles that do not share a common past. In addition to its foundational interest, we show that this technique might lower the resource requirements in quantum networks, by reducing the complexity of photon sources and the overhead photon numbers.

Source: Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 233601 (2024) – Entangling Independent Particles by Path Identity

the PDF

Krenn Research Grou

IBM develops fast Chips with light signals

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An optical fibre technology can help chips communicate with each other at the speed of light, enabling them to transmit 80 times as much information as they could using traditional electrical connections. That could significantly speed up the training times required for large artificial intelligence models – from months to weeks – while also reducing the energy and emissions costs for data centres.

Most advanced computer chips still communicate using electrical signals carried over copper wires. But as the tech industry races to train large AI models – a process that requires networks of AI superchips to transfer huge amounts of data – companies are eager to link chips using the light-speed communication of fibre optics.

[…]

Khare and his colleagues have developed an optics module that would enable chipmakers to add six times as many optical fibres to the edge of a chip, compared to current technologies. The module uses a structure called an optical waveguide to connect as many as 51 optical fibres per millimetre. It also prevents light signals from one fibre from interfering with its neighbours.

[…]

IBM has already put the optical module through stress tests that included high humidity and temperatures ranging from -40°C (-40°F) to 125°C (257°F). Hutcheson expects that major semiconductor manufacturing companies may be interested in licensing the technology.

[…]

Source: Chips linked with light could train AI faster while using less energy | New Scientist

Scientists Built a Tiny DNA ‘Hand’ That Grabs Viruses to Stop Infections

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Imagine if scientists could grab virus particles the same way we pick up a tennis ball or a clementine, and prevent them from infecting cells. Well, scientists in Illinois have built a microscopic four-fingered hand to do just that.

A team of scientists, led by Xing Wang of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has created a tiny hand, dubbed the NanoGripper, from a single piece of folded DNA that can grab covid-19 particles. Their findings, detailed in a November 27 study published in the journal Science Robotics, demonstrate that the hand can conduct a rapid test to identify the virus as well as prevent the particles from infecting healthy cells. Although the study focused specifically on the covid-19 virus, the results have important implications for numerous medical conditions.

“We wanted to make a soft material, nanoscale robot with grabbing functions that never have been seen before, to interact with cells, viruses and other molecules for biomedical applications,” Wang said in a university statement. “We are using DNA for its structural properties. It is strong, flexible and programmable. Yet even in the DNA origami field, this is novel in terms of the design principle. We fold one long strand of DNA back and forth to make all of the elements, both the static and moving pieces, in one step.”

a NanoGripper hand and its components
A NanoGripper hand and its components. © Xing Wang

The NanoGripper has four jointed fingers and a palm. The fingers are programmed to attach to specific targets—in the case of covid-19, the virus’ infamous spike protein—and close their grip around them. According to the study, when the researchers exposed cells with NanoGrippers to covid-19, the hands’ gripping mechanisms prevented the viral spike proteins from infecting the cells.

“It would be very difficult to apply it after a person is infected, but there’s a way we could use it as a preventive therapeutic,” Wang explained. “We could make an anti-viral nasal spray compound. The nose is the hot spot for respiratory viruses, like covid or influenza. A nasal spray with the NanoGripper could prevent inhaled viruses from interacting with the cells in the nose.”

The hand is also decked with a unique sensor that detects covid-19 in 30 minutes with the accuracy of the now-familiar qPCR molecular tests used in hospitals.

“When the virus is held in the NanoGripper’s hand, a fluorescent molecule is triggered to release light when illuminated by an LED or laser,” said Brian Cunningham, one of Wang’s colleagues on the study, also from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “When a large number of fluorescent molecules are concentrated upon a single virus, it becomes bright enough in our detection system to count each virus individually.”

Like a true Swiss army knife, scientists could modify the NanoGripper to potentially detect and grab other viruses, including HIV, influenza, or hepatitis B, as detailed in the study. The NanoGripper’s “wrist side” could also attach to another biomedical tool for additional functions, such as targeted drug delivery.

Wang, however, is thinking even bigger than viruses: cancer. The fingers could be programmed to target cancer cells the same way they currently identify covid-19’s spike proteins, and then deliver focused cancer-fighting treatments.

A Nanogripper's Applications
An artistic rendering of the NanoGripper’s potential applications. © Xing Wang

“Of course it would require a lot of testing, but the potential applications for cancer treatment and the sensitivity achieved for diagnostic applications showcase the power of soft nanorobotics,” Wang concluded.

Here’s to hoping NanoGrippers might give scientists the ability to grab the next pandemic by the nanoballs.

Source: Scientists Built a Tiny DNA ‘Hand’ That Grabs Viruses to Stop Infections

I am very curious how the detection and delivery are programmed.

Boffins build diamond battery that lasts millennia

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The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and the University of Bristol have built a diamond battery capable of delivering power, albeit a tiny amount, for thousands of years.

The university had an idea for a battery powered by carbon-14, the longest-lived radioactive isotope of carbon with a half-life of around 5,700 years. For safety reasons, they wanted to encapsulate it in synthetic diamond so there was no risk of human harm, and so went to the UKAEA for help.

The result is a microwatt-level battery around the same diameter as a standard lithium-ion coin battery, albeit much thinner, as shown below. As the carbon-14 decays, the electrons produced are focused by the diamond shell and can be used to power devices – if they only require very little power, of course.

“This is about UK innovation and no one’s ever done this before,” said Professor Tom Scott, professor in materials at the University of Bristol. “We can offer a technology where you never have to replace the battery because the battery will literally, on human timescales, last forever.”

Working together, the team built a plasma deposition system at UKAEA’s Culham Campus. This lays down thin layers of synthetic diamond around the battery’s carbon-14 heart. The team is now trying to scale up the machinery so that larger batteries can be developed.

“Diamond batteries offer a safe, sustainable way to provide continuous microwatt levels of power. They are an emerging technology that uses a manufactured diamond to safely encase small amounts of carbon-14,” said Sarah Clark, director of Tritium Fuel Cycle at UKAEA.

The first use case for the technology would be extreme environments like powering small satellites (the European Space Agency funded some of the research) or sensors on the sea floor. But the team also envisaged the technology being implanted in humans to power devices such as pacemakers or cochlear implants that could receive power for longer than the human carrying them would need. ®

Source: Boffins build diamond battery that lasts millennia • The Register

Chinese scammers, criminals and businesses are exploiting its surveillance state

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Chinese tech company employees and government workers are siphoning off user data and selling it online – and even high-ranking Chinese Communist Party officials and FBI-wanted hackers’ sensitive information is being peddled by the Middle Kingdom’s thriving illegal data ecosystem.

“While Western cybercrime research focuses heavily on criminals in the English- and Russian-speaking worlds, there is also a large community of Chinese-speaking cybercriminals who engage in scammy, low-level, financially motivated cybercrime,” SpyCloud senior security researcher Kyla Cardona said during a talk at last month’s Cyberwarcon in Arlington, Virginia.

It’s no secret that President Xi Jinping’s government uses technology companies to help maintain the nation’s massive surveillance apparatus.

But in addition to forcing businesses operating in China to stockpile and hand over info about their users for censorship and state-snooping purposes, a black market for individuals’ sensitive data is also booming. Corporate and government insiders have access to this harvested private info, and the financial incentives to sell the data to fraudsters and crooks to exploit.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Cardona told The Register during an interview alongside SpyCloud infosec researcher Aurora Johnson.

“The data is being collected by rich and powerful people that control technology companies and work in the government, but it can also be used against them in all of these scams and fraud and other low-level crimes,” Johnson added.

China’s thriving data black market

To get their hands on the personal info, Chinese data brokers often recruit shady insiders with wanted ads seeking “friends” working in government, and promise daily income of 20,000 to 70,000 yuan ($2,700 and $9,700) in exchange for harvested information. This data is then used to pull off scams, fraud, and suchlike.

Some of these data brokers also claim to have “signed formal contracts” with the big three Chinese telecom companies: China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom. The brokers’ marketing materials tout they are able to legally obtain and sell details of people’s internet habits via the Chinese telcos’ deep packet inspection systems, which monitor as well as manage and store network traffic. (The West has also seen this kind of thing.)

Crucially, this level of surveillance by the telcos gives their employees access to users’ browsing data and other info, which workers can then swipe and then resell themselves through various brokers, Cardona and Johnson said.

Scammers and other criminals are buying copies of this personal information, illicitly obtained or otherwise, for their swindles, but it’s also being purchased by legitimate businesses for sales leads — to sell people car insurance when theirs is about to expire, for example.

Information acquired through DPI also seems to be a major source of the stolen personal details that goes into the so-called “social engineering databases,” or SGKs (short for shegong ku​), according to the researchers.

In addition to amassing information collected from DPI, these databases contain personal details provided by underhand software development kits (SDKs) buried in apps and other programs, which basically spy on users in real time, as well as records stolen during IT security breaches.

SGK records include personal profiles (names, genders, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email and social media account details, zodiac signs), bank account and other financial information, health records, property and vehicle information, facial recognition scans and photos, criminal case details, and more. Some of the SGK platforms allow users to do reverse lookups on potential targets, allowing someone to be ultimately identified from their otherwise non-identifying details.

[…]

One SGK that has since been taken down had more than 3 million users. As of now, one of the biggest stolen-info databases has 317,000 subscribers, we’re told, while most of the search services each see about 90,000 users per month.

[…]

One also displayed a ton of sensitive details belonging to a high-ranking CCP member.

​A free SGK search query about this individual pulled up the person’s name, physical address, mobile number, national ID number, birth date, gender, and issuing authority, which the researcher surmised is the issuing authority for the ID card.

An additional query produced even more: The person’s WeChat ID, vehicle information, hobbies and industry information, marital status, and monthly salary, and his phone’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number with a link to click for more information about the device.

The researchers found similar info about a People’s Liberation Army member using SGKs, plus details about suspected nation-state-backed criminals wanted by the FBI.

[…]

“There is a huge ecosystem of Chinese breached and leaked data, and I don’t know that a lot of Western cybersecurity researchers are looking at this,” Johnson continued. “It poses privacy risks to all Chinese people across all groups. And then it also gives us Western cybersecurity researchers a really interesting source to track some of these actors that have been targeting critical infrastructure.” ®

Source: How Chinese insiders exploit its surveillance state • The Register

Which goes to show – large centralised databases give away their data to far too many people. Bad security (like government backdoors to encryption) is bad for everyone – anyone with the key can (and will) get in (like the US is finding out: In massive U-turn, FBI Warns Americans to Start Using Encrypted Messaging Apps, after discovering the problem with backdoors)