Chrome c’est le navigateur dont je ne voudrais même pas sur mon ordinateur tellement il est pourri comparé à Firefox alors imaginez ma surprise quand j’ai appris qu’OpenAI voulait racheter cette bouze ! Et pas n’importe comment !! Ils le veulent uniquement si la justice américaine force Google à s’en séparer suite à ce fameux procès antitrust qui a déclaré Google comme détenteur d’un monopole illégal sur la recherche web.

Avec tout ce que vous avez placé au fil des années sur votre Livret A Caisse d’Epargne, je pense que vous allez enfin pouvoir réaliser votre rêve : Acheter un satellite de grade militaire ! Oui, vous m’avez bien lu, on n’est plus dans les films là, c’est enfin une réalité !!

Pour la modique somme de 5,5 millions de dollars (soit moins cher qu’un jet privé d’entrée de gamme), c’est ce que propose United Spaceports Corp, la société qui sera aux commandes du futur Spaceport de Las Vegas. Leur offre ? Le Black Star 1000 sera donc le premier satellite militaire personnel de l’histoire disponible pour monsieur et madame Tout-le-monde (enfin, ceux qui ont vidé leur PEL, leur assurance-vie, et vendu un rein ou deux).

Il y a quelques semaines, j’ai eu l’occasion de participer au podcast ‘Derrière La Bulle’ de Léo Pereira et c’était vraiment sympa !

On a fait un voyage dans le temps, depuis l’époque où uploader une image de 50 Ko prenait une pause café jusqu’aux IA génératives du moment et comme j’ai vécu toute cette évolution des débuts chaotiques du HTML, à l’émergence des blogs, en passant par la montée du web social, et maintenant l’ère de l’IA, j’avais plein de trucs à raconter.

Même si ça n’embête pas grand monde, les dashcams restent problématiques parce que quelqu’un pourrait avoir des images de vous au volant de votre Fiat Punto, avec votre maitresse sur le siège passager… Ou encore déambulant complètement saoule et à moitié nu dans les rues de Pau, ce qui vous empêcherait, peut-être un jour d’être ministre… Quoique…

Mais je trouve que ça apporte quand même un gros avantage en cas d’accident pour lever le doute sur certaines situations complexes surtout quand on voit le nombre de Volkswagens, euuuh pardon, de chauffards en exercice sur nos routes nationales.

Tiens, alors ça c’est rigolo ! Le projet deb-books vient de mettre en lumière une pratique assez fascinante, à savoir l’utilisation d’œuvres littéraires complètes comme données de test dans des dépôts Debian.

En général, quand je pense “dépôt Debian”, j’imagine des lignes de code impénétrables et des commentaires cryptiques et chelous qui feraient chialer un intégrateur HTML, mais certainement pas les œuvres complètes de William Shakespeare ou les aventures d’Alice au pays des merveilles.

Hier, on rentrait de l’école avec mon fils et il m’a posé une question intéressante : “Est ce qu’on peut rester coincé dans une voiture ?”

Grosse question, surtout quand on sait qu’une voiture peut couler entièrement en moins de 60 secondes ou qu’un habitacle peut atteindre 45°C en seulement 30 minutes alors qu’il fait à peine 26°C dehors. Ou encore que toucher simultanément votre voiture et le sol quand un câble électrique est tombé dessus, peut vous instantanément vous griller comme une saucisse…

Salut à tous !

Je tenais à partager avec vous quelques évolutions récentes sur le site qui vont transformer votre expérience de lecture. Parmi les améliorations apportées, j’ai mis en place une fonctionnalité particulièrement agréable qui vous permettra de profiter pleinement du contenu.

Ainsi, les personnes qui me soutiennent via Patreon peuvent désormais naviguer sur le site dans un environnement épuré, sans aucune publicité. L’expérience est hyper fluide et vous permettra de vous concentrer uniquement sur le contenu de qualité que vous appréciez. Il vous suffit de cliquer sur le bouton “Accès Patreon” dans l’entête du site pour vous connecter et débloquer cette expérience premium ^^.

Dans le monde merveilleux de Microsoft, un échec n’en est jamais vraiment un !

La preuve avec cette anecdote racontée par Dave Plummer sur sa chaîne YouTube “Dave’s Garage” où il révèle comment Microsoft Bob, cette interface utilisateur cartoonesque sortie en 1995 dont seulement 58 000 copies ont été vendues, a connu une seconde vie secrète. Une histoire qui va faire plaisir à tous les nostalgiques de Windows qui sont passés sous macOS depuis bien longtemps ^^.

What we know about robots and how they are created is constantly evolving as we see scientists draw inspiration from the natural world to create innovative and efficient machines. The latest marvel to emerge from this fascinating intersection is a small, agile robot that forgoes traditional locomotion in favor of a wing-assisted hopping mechanism. Developed by a collaborative team of scientists from MIT, the University of Hong Kong, and the City University of Hong Kong, this tiny bot is demonstrating a unique approach to movement.

Designer: MIT

This remarkable creation, standing just over 5 centimeters tall and weighing less than a single gram, utilizes a vertically oriented, spring-loaded carbon fiber rod as its primary means of propulsion. Functioning like a miniature pogo stick, this leg compresses upon impact with the ground, storing energy that is then released to launch the robot into the air. However, what truly sets this robot apart is its integration of four insect-inspired flapping wings, powered by electrically activated artificial muscles. These wings aren’t designed for sustained flight in the traditional sense. Instead, they play a crucial role in augmenting the robot’s leaps, providing additional lift and enabling it to achieve impressive heights of up to 20 centimeters. Furthermore, these wing movements contribute to its lateral agility, allowing it to traverse distances of up to 30 centimeters per second.

This novel approach offers a potential advantage in terms of energy efficiency compared to traditional flying robots. By primarily relying on the spring-loaded leg for vertical movement and utilizing the wings for assistance and stability, the robot can potentially operate for longer durations on a limited power supply. Currently, this groundbreaking robot is tethered to an external power source and relies on an external motion-tracking system for guidance. This suggests that it is still in the experimental phase, with future development likely focused on miniaturizing the power source and integrating onboard control systems for autonomous operation. The concept of combining hopping and wing assistance is not entirely new in the realm of bio-inspired robotics. Researchers have previously explored similar ideas, such as the “Hopcopter” developed by the City University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which combined a commercially available quadcopter with a spring-loaded hopping leg for efficient ground traversal. Similarly, researchers at Stanford University developed a “jumpglider” that used a spring for takeoff and pivoting wings for gliding, showcasing the potential of combining different modes of locomotion.

This latest winged hopping robot represents another significant step forward in this field. Its lightweight design and impressive agility open up possibilities for various applications, such as exploration in confined spaces, environmental monitoring, or even search and rescue operations in complex terrains where traditional robots might struggle. As research progresses and the technology matures, we can anticipate seeing more robots that cleverly combine different forms of movement to achieve greater efficiency and versatility, taking inspiration from the incredible adaptability found in the natural world. This little hopping robot with wings might just be the herald of a new era in robotic locomotion.

The post Tiny, winged robot jumps instead of flying first appeared on Yanko Design.

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People who are deaf or cannot speak, or both – have long been aided by the American Sign Language (ASL) in communicating with people. Although the accuracy of the communication solely depends on the understanding of people on both ends, that can be a problem if one or more conversants are not that fluent in ASL. Researchers at Cornell University have recognized this problem and want to leverage the goodness of wearable technologies to make it smoother for people who are differently abled to communicate with the world as they intend to.

The experts at the university have employed the smart ring platform to develop a wearable that tracks the American Sign Language gestures of the wearer to accurately transcribe them into understandable text or audio to a computer or a smartphone. They call it the SpellRing, and it can be worn on the thumb to get the desired input for the translated data. The wearable comes with embedded sensors including a mini-gyroscope to measure the angular data from hand movement. The on-board speakers and mic detect the inaudible sound waves from the movement. All these components are housed inside a 3D-printed housing that’s no more than the size of a quarter.

Designer: Cornell University

The smart AI ring can detect all 26 letters in the English language with micro-sonar technology to precisely track the fingerspelling of the wearer. For more accuracy sonar images are also fed into the system. The data that is received from all the sensors and hardware is then processed by a deep-learning algorithm. All of this is done in a split second time to predict the ASL fingerspelled by the wearer. To make possible an in-depth and unbiased view of the wearable for further development, the researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Stony Brook University, along with the researchers from Cornell University have tested the wearable thoroughly.

In the conducted tests, 20 amateur and experienced ASL signers were asked to spell more than 20,000 words to see the accuracy of the AI-assisted wearable ring. The 3D-printed wearable passed with a combined accuracy of around 90 percent with both signed words, as well as, sentences. It was even tested to perform actions such as web search, map navigation, or typing in notes with the input. According to Hyunchul Lim, lead author of SpellRing’s papered documentation, “ASL is a very complicated, complex visual language,” and the focus is right now on tuning the algorithm to make the AI ring understand words and phrases with maximum accuracy.

The SpellRing is currently in the prototype stage and there is no word on the availability of the ring yet. The team is confident that even in the current stage, ASL fingertyping will be significantly faster than typing on your smartphone’s keyboard. Researchers want this ring to be a tool for fast and accessible text entry with a niche set of benefits targeted toward a set of users. The prospects of this AI ring graduating to the wearable market are very high since it costs just $30 to make the current prototype AI ring. When it will be mass produced that cost can be further trimmed down.

The post SpellRing is an AI-enabled smart ring that converts American Sign Language into phone text first appeared on Yanko Design.

Bluetooth speakers are a dime a dozen in any market. Whether you’re looking for something within your budget or you want to find something that matches your space’s aesthetic or you want something that looks like just any other speaker, you won’t run out of options. But of course product designers don’t run out of ideas for coming up with new concepts and eventually even actual products. There are those who carefully think about both the design part or the technical specs or in the case of really good designers, both. Desktop speakers have fewer innovative designs compared to bluetooth speakers but there are still some concepts out there worth noting.

Designer: Hao Kong

The Hoan desktop speaker concept brings about a minimalist aesthetic but with a functional elegance. The designer also adds an element of eco-friendliness as one of their goals is to minimize the carbon footprint of the product if it ever gets produced. The speaker’s functionality is a key visual element as the structural integrity is highlighted in the design. It has a clean, uncluttered design that integrates it into most of the modern desktop setups now. The speaker’s aesthetic is emphasized more on the side and rear views where the structural beauty is highlighted but you can also see it from various angles.

The main focal point of the speaker is the grill that has a detailed mesh design that both covers and highlights the functional structure. The main body rests on a circular stand with a metal curvature holding it in between. It’s such a simple, minimalist design but it means it can blend well with your desktop setup and also is economical in terms of space and production. He didn’t indicate what materials will be used but if lessening the product footprint is the goal, then we can expect something that is sustainable as well.

The HOAN desktop speaker concept represents a thoughtful approach to desktop audio, blending minimalist design with functional elegance. As the concept gains traction, it will be interesting to see if it evolves into a commercially available product. Ultimately, the HOAN concept serves as a reminder that even in a saturated market, fresh perspectives and innovative design can capture attention. It highlights the potential for desktop audio to transcend mere functionality, becoming a visually compelling element within our personal workspaces.

The post Desktop speaker concept reimagines minimalist, stylish aesthetic first appeared on Yanko Design.

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