Article: Ikea-style game inspired by flat-pack furniture

To build your dream home, you have to live through the nightmare of constructing flat-pack furniture. That is the sad truth now acknowledged by many. But for one group of American students, this was also the realisation that led to a video game that has generated a lot of buzz. Home Improvisation...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31133955

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drag2share: Police are using software to predict where crime will happen

source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/11/predictive-policing/?utm_source=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full

Police are unlikely to ever have a Minority Report-like ability to get inside would-be criminals' heads, but they may already have the next-best thing. Developers like PredPol are offering "predictive policing" software that tells cops where and when crimes are likely to happen based on the location, the nature of the crime and the time of day. The software knows that there's a good chance that a burglary or gang slaying will lead to similar activity in a given area, or that you'll see drunken fights outside of a dive bar in the early morning. Theoretically, police just have to patrol these areas more often to stop crime before it starts.

There are some signs that the strategy may be working; as Forbes notes, early results in cities like Atlanta, Los Angeles and Santa Cruz saw both reduced crime rates and better prediction compared to conventional analysts. However, the jury's still out. Without more extensive studies, it's hard to know whether the drops are directly related to predictive software or can be chalked up to other factors, such as crooks moving to other areas. Also, the tools could tempt police departments into leaning too much on code instead of understanding neighborhoods and tackling deep-seated problems. If the software is both proven effective and used wisely, though, it could cut back on unnecessary tragedies and familiarize rookie cops with known trouble spots.

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Samsung expands the search for its next hit product with 'innovation team'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/10/samsung-expands-its-search-for-the-next-big-thing/

Virtual reality, drones, 3D printing, robotic telepresence and self-driving cars. A nice selection for tech buzzword bingo, but also just some of the things that Samsung's new product innovation team is already tackling in a bid to come up with the next (big-selling) thing -- its next Galaxy. "Samsung's previous success was mostly due to releasing products that are competitive in pricing. This is an old business formula...": said one official, unsurprisingly not named in the Korea Times report. And while, barring an initial foray into VR, these could all be very new business avenues for Samsung.

It all sounds a little bit Google, in the good kind of way, and at least a more interesting approach than wave after wave of iterative smartphones, tablets... and wearables. The company is looking to make up for the severe dip in smartphone sales it's experienced recently -- another successful product line could pick up that slack, especially if it ties into its profitable component business. While this new innovation team will apparently have no direct links from the corporate beast that is Samsung Electronics, however it'll still be headed up by the company's head of mobile, JK Shin, so read into that what you will.

"The main purpose of the team isn't to develop single devices for any imminent results, but to develop solutions to go with Samsung's manufacturing capabilities," said another Samsung spokesperson, adding that the team would pull technicians, strategists and product managers in from the company.

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays, Transportation, Wearables, Science, Samsung

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Source: Korea Times

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IBM's Watson taking crash course in Japanese for SoftBank

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/10/ibm-watson-softbank/

IBM's publicity-loving supercomputer Watson has a new job in Japan for wireless carrier SoftBank doing... something? It's job description there is vague so far, but first it'll need to learn Japanese, no small feat for a machine which has remained mostly occidental so far. Watson is first and foremost a cognitive computer who's job is to parse language and find relationships between huge amounts of data. That means in order to help SoftBank -- which has divisions around the world, including Sprint Nextel in the US -- it'll need to get a better grasp of the language and culture in Japan.

IBM and Softbank will jointly build the Japanese language version of Watson, and SoftBank will resell and distribute the tech in Japan. As for what exactly it plans to do with Watson, the carrier said it will start by tapping local developers to build new features aimed at its home market. For its own purposes, it'll exploit IBM's knack for natural language learning to help consumers and use its predictive talents to make better business decisions.

More concretely, SoftBank could put Watson to use in next-gen robots that would work as teaching assistants or hospital aids, two areas where the supercomputer already has some experience. SoftBank also said Watson would operate in its local data centers. In the US, Watson has won Jeopardy, imitated Dr. House and been a financier. Despite those feats, however, it's been a commercial failure so far, forcing IBM to bolster it recently with a $100 million round of funding.

[Image Credit: Getty Images]

Filed under: Storage, Software

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Via: Re/Code

Source: IBM (translated)

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drag2share: Sigma makes a super wide-angle version of its super wide camera

source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/10/sigma-dp0-quattro/?utm_source=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full

Don't think Sigma's extremely wide dp Quattro cameras are outrageous enough? Don't worry, the company has you covered. The new dp0 Quattro mates a new version of Sigma's high-detail Foveon X3 sensor (billed here as equal to a 39-megapixel conventional sensor) with a fixed 14mm f/4 ultra wide-angle lens. Yes, you read that correctly -- buy a dp0 and your only choice is to capture all-encompassing shots. While the glass corrects for the chromatic aberrations and distortions you sometimes see in wide-angle imagery, you'll need a penchant for shooting landscapes or real estate ads if this is going to make much sense. Sigma isn't talking about prices or ship dates for the dp0 just yet, but the $999 price of both the dp1 and dp2 suggests that you'll be paying a hefty sum to own a compact cam with freaky optics.

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