AI Drones : Smaller and Smarter
Researchers from ETH Zurich, Switzerland and the University of Bologna have built the smallest completely autonomous quadrotor nano-drone that uses AI to fly itself, and doesn’t need human guidance.
Neural Network
The technology at the heart of the Crazyflie 2.0 Nano Quadcopter is the DroNet neural network. This is able to processes incoming images from a camera at 20 frames per second. From this, the nano-drone is able to work out how to steer, and calculate the probability of a collision, thereby giving it the ability to know when to stop.
Fully On-Board Computation
The fact that the drone needs no external sensing and computing because all computation is fully on-board thanks to the PULP (Parallel Ultra Low Power) platform, means that it is truly autonomous, and is, therefore, a real first in terms of how a small drone can be controlled.
The new autonomous version is an improvement on the first test version, which involved putting the DroNet neural network system in a larger commercial-off-the-shelf, Parrot Bebop 2.0 drone, and using radio contact with a laptop to control it.
Trained Using Images
Since AI requires training so that it can learn to become better at a task, the drone’s neural network was trained using thousands of images taken from bicycles and cars driving along different roads.
Only Horizontal Movement
One major drawback at the current time is that, because it was trained using images from a single plane, the drone can only move horizontally and cannot yet fly up or down.
Even Smaller
Technologies involved in making drones have evolved to such a degree that even a robot ‘fly’ has now been built.
As the successor to RoboBee, the so-called RoboFly it is so small (the size of a fly) that it can’t support the weight of a battery to power it. The power for flight is currently delivered by a laser being trained on an attached photovoltaic cell.
The tiny device has wings that are flapped by sending a series of pulses of power in rapid succession and then slowing the pulsing down as it gets near the top of the wave (with the whole process in reverse for the downward flap).
The RoboFly, developed by a team of researchers based in Australia, can only just take off and travel a very short distance at present. Future plans for RoboFly reportedly include improving the onboard telemetry so it can control itself, and making a steered laser that can follow the bug’s movements and continuously beam power in its direction.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Up until now, the main uses for drones have been specialist applications such as within the military, in construction (viewing and mapping sites), film and TV, leisure use, and even for delivery of parcels (Amazon tests). All of these involve the use of larger drones that are remotely controlled.
The ideas that a drone can be made in a miniature size, and / or can control itself using AI could open up many more new areas of opportunity for businesses and other organisations. Such drones could be used in confined spaces or in very specialised situations.
The idea of an AI drone has, however, led to some alarm being expressed by some commentators. Even though AI autonomy could help drones to e.g. to monitor environments, be used in spying, and develop swarm intelligence for military use, some have expressed worries that they could become better at delivering lethal payloads, and could pose other unforeseen security risks.
Tech Tip – Play Almost Any File Format
If you sometimes have trouble opening and playing certain file formats e.g. for videos, free and open-sourced VLC software makes it easy to play almost any file format you throw at it.
To download the app, which works with Mac, PC, Linux, Android, and iOS, and states that it doesn’t deliver ads or engage in user tracking:
– Go to https://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html
– Click on the appropriate Operating System.
– Read the details and click on the orange download button.
Google Driverless Car Involved In Smash
A self-driving vehicle owned by Google’s Waymo has been involved in a smash in Arizona when it was hit by a car that swerved across multiple lanes.
Driverless Mode – But With Person On Board
The Google car was in autonomous / driverless mode at the time of the crash, but had a test driver in the driver’s seat. The lady occupant is reported to be recovering from the incident.
A discussion is now underway as to whether the driverless car system or the test driver on board could have done anything more to avoid being hit by the other vehicle.
Waymo and Jaguar
Waymo is the self-driving car company that is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, and has been testing driverless vehicles since 2009. It has been reported that Waymo wants to purchase 20,000 Jaguar electric vehicles as part of its plans to launch a robotic ride-hailing service in the US.
It is understood that Waymo’s link-up with Jaguar will mean that from 2020 to 2022, UK-based (owned by India’s Tata Motors ) Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) I-PACE electric cars will be providing up to one million rides per day in the service. It is thought that Jaguar cars will appeal to more upmarket customers, thereby already showing the possibilities for segmentation in driverless ride-hailing services.
The ride-hailing service will be launched on a small scale in Phoenix, Arizona, first in the coming months.
Not The First Autonomous Vehicle Accident
Although the Google car did not cause the crash, this is not the first time an autonomous vehicle has been involved in a serious incident. Back in March, Uber suspended all self-driving car tests in all North American cities after a fatal accident a 49-year-old woman was hit and killed by one of its autonomous vehicles as she crossed the street in Tempe, Arizona.
This was the second time that Uber has pulled its self-driving cars from the roads after an accident. A year earlier, also on Arizona, an Uber Volvo SUV in self-driving mode ended up on its side after another vehicle “failed to yield” to the Uber car at a left turn.
Autonomous Lorry Convoys on UK Roads This Year
Last year, the UK government announced that ‘platoons’ (mini-convoys) of self-driving, partially autonomous lorries are to be tested on British roads before the end of 2018. The so-called ‘platoons’ will take the form of several lorries driving closely together in a line in the inside lane, with the lead lorry wirelessly controlling the acceleration and braking for all the lorries, and with the following lorries responding to the changes in speed.
It is understood that for the tests which have been promised since 2014 and will be carried out by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), a human driver will be in the cab of the lead lorry, and will be able to take control if things don’t go entirely to plan.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Autonomous vehicles and vehicles with autonomous elements are already being tested and used in commercial environments and as part of the transport system in the US and the UK. The combination of driverless vehicles powered by electricity and using AI technology could provide a more environmentally-friendly solution to a variety of different transportation and delivery challenges, and to hopefully reduce traffic accidents.
The accidents involving driverless vehicles to date have, however, prompted some commentators to warn that the technology is being deployed before it is ready. Clearly, it is still early days for autonomous vehicles which means that there are still many untapped opportunities to use autonomous vehicles commercially, and there are of course many challenges and issues to consider around safety, insurance, regulations and reliability.
Autonomous vehicles are likely to be adopted more quickly on closed sites first, but operators who decide to adapt such sites to work for autonomy could expect significant improvements in productivity and safety.
Despite any bad press from the unfortunate crashes involving test autonomous cars in the US, having an emerging industry such as autonomous vehicles, with all its talent, technology and development centres here in the UK represents a huge opportunity for UK businesses as potential suppliers, beneficiaries of the technologies and products, and spin-off market opportunities. It also represents an opportunity for UK insurers.
Whereas the UK has a skills gap in many areas of the technology market, with the right amount of support and backing from the government and other investors, the testing, developing, and production of autonomous vehicles and the necessary technologies could be one area where home-grown talent is tempted to stay in what could become a world-centre of excellence for autonomous vehicle / AI technology.
Cambridge Analytica Ordered To Turn Over All Data On US Professor
| The UK data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has ordered the consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to hand over all the personal information it has on US citizen Professor David Carroll, or face prosecution.
Demand Made in May 2017 The consulting firm, which is reported to have ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy in the wake of the recent scandal involving its access to and use of Facebook users’ details is facing the Enforcement Notice and possible legal action (if it doesn’t comply) because it has not fully met a demand made by Professor Carroll early last year. Who Is Professor David Carroll? David Carroll is a professor at the New School’s Parsons School of Design. Although Professor Carroll is based in New York and is not a UK citizen, he used a subject access request (part of British data protection law) to ask Cambridge Analytica’s branch in the UK to provide all the data it had gathered on him. With this type of request, organisations need to respond within 40 days with a copy of the data, the source of the data, and if the organisation will be giving the data to others. It has been reported that Professor Carroll, a Democrat, was interested from an academic perspective, in the practice of political ad targeting in elections. Professor Carroll alleges that he was also concerned that he may have been targeted with messages that criticised Secretary Hillary Clinton with falsified or exaggerated information that may have negatively affected his sentiment about her candidacy. Sent A Spreadsheet Some weeks after Professor Carroll filed the subject access request in early 2017, Cambridge Analytica sent him a spreadsheet of information it had about him. It has been reported that Cambridge Analytica had accurately predicted his views on some issues, and had scored Carroll a nine 9 of 10 on what it called a “traditional social and moral values importance rank.” What’s The Problem? Even though Carroll was given a spreadsheet with some information, he wanted to know what that ranking meant and what it was based on, and where the data about him came from. Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix told a UK parliamentary committee that his company would not provide American citizens, like David Carroll, all the data it holds on them, or tell them where the data came from, and Nix said that there was no legislation in the US that allowed individuals to make such a request. The UK’s Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, sent a letter to Cambridge Analytica asking where the data on Professor Carroll came from, and what had been done with it. Elizabeth Denham is also reported to have said that, whether or not the people behind Cambridge Analytica decide to fold their operation, a continued refusal to engage with the ICO will still potentially breach an Enforcement Notice, and it will then become a criminal matter. What Does This Mean For Your Business? Many people have been shocked and angered by the recent scandal involving Facebook and its sharing of Facebook user data with Cambridge Analytica. The action by Professor Carroll could not only shed light on how millions of American voters were targeted online in the run-up to the 2016 election, but it could also lead to a wider understanding of what data is stored about us and how it is used by companies and organisations. The right to request personal data that an organisation holds about us is a cornerstone right in data protection law, and this right will be brought into even sharper focus by the introduction of GDPR this month. GDPR will also give EU citizens the ‘right to be forgotten’, and has already put pressure on UK companies to put their data house in order, and prepare to comply or face stiff penalties. This story also shows that American citizens can request information from companies that process their data in the UK. |
Facebook Loyalty Intact Says Survey
Even after all the publicity surrounding Facebook’s selling of the personal data of 87 million users to Cambridge Analytica, a Reuters/Ipsos survey has found that most users are still loyal to the social media giant.
Just A Public Relations Problem
The survey conducted April 26-30 was based in the US, the home country of Facebook and the place where the vast majority of those whose data was sold live. Far from indicating that any users have been outraged by the selling of their personal data property without their permission, the survey appears to show that Facebook has so far suffered no ill effects from the scandal, other than a public relations headache.
A Quarter Using Facebook More!
The survey showed that half of US Facebook users said they had not recently changed the amount that they used the site, and, incredibly, a quarter of those surveyed said they were using it more!
The remaining 25% said that they were using it less recently, had stopped using it, or deleted their account.
64% of those surveyed said they still used Facebook at least once a day, down only slightly from the 68% recorded in a similar poll in late March.
The results appear to show, therefore, that the numbers of those using Facebook more has balanced out the numbers of any respondents who said they used the platform less, meaning that, according to the survey, Facebook appears to have suffered no real damage other than a PR hit from the scandal.
Wait Until 2nd Quarter
Facebook actually showed a near 50% increase its sales in the first quarter of this year, with profits up to $4.9bn from $3bn last year. Some commentators have stressed, however, that any of the financial effects of the scandal are likely to be evident in the second quarter.
Cambridge Analytica Closed
While Facebook, a social media giant, appears to have suffered no real damage other than a PR hit, Cambridge Analytica has been forced to go into liquidation blaming negative media attention. Some commentators have pointed out that Cambridge Analytica portrayed themselves as victims of unwarranted press activity, thereby deflecting blame from their activities involving the use of the personal data of millions to influence election and referendum outcomes.
Trusted With Dating Information?
It may appear that customer loyalty is still intact to a large extent now, but the next test for Facebook could be whether customers will trust them with their privacy when Facebook rolls out its dating service app later this year.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
This story shows what many tech commentators had predicted – that the fact that Facebook was so much a part of peoples’ daily routine with no real alternative among the other social media platforms, that it could weather the storm and come out the other end with little real impact on its user numbers. It seems strange that, even though customers personal details were harvested and sold to a third party, without the permission of users, and then used to potentially influence how they voted in the US election (and in the Brexit referendum in the UK) that very few people appear to be prepared to see that as grounds to reject Facebook and the service and value that it offers in their lives.
People actively use Facebook as an integral part of their friendship networks and as a source of news, thereby allowing it unprecedented access to their personal lives and interests, as well as allowing it to help shape their view of the world, and it may be this investment and yes, loyalty, that has allowed them to apparently forgive Facebook for its part in the scandal, and to allow the value that Facebook offers in their lives to outweigh Facebook’s indiscretions.
From a business point of view, this shows how powerful loyalty can be, especially if a service can offer value that links strongly to ‘self’ and things that have emotional and personal connections and importance, and allow and enable real engagement.
8 More Security Flaws Found In Processors
Following on from the revelation in January that 2 major security flaws are present in nearly all modern processors, security researchers have now found 8 more potentially serious flaws.
Eight?
According to reports by German tech news magazine c’t, the 8 new security flaws in chips / processors were discovered by several different security teams. The magazine is reported to have been given the full technical details of the vulnerabilities by researchers and has been able to verify them.
The new ‘family’ of bugs have been dubbed Spectre Next Generation (Spectre NB), after the original Spectre bug that was made public along with the ‘Meltdown’ bug at the beginning of the year.
90 Days To Respond
The researchers who discovered the bugs have followed bug disclosure protocols, and have given chip-makers and others 90 days to respond and to prepare patches before they release details of the bugs. The 90 day time limit ran out on Monday 7th May.
Co-ordinated Disclosure
Intel is reported to have been reluctant to simply acknowledge the existence of the bugs, preferring to have what it calls a ‘co-ordinated disclosure’, presumably near the end of the protocol time limit, when there has been time to prepare patches and to mitigate any other issues.
It is not yet clear if AMD processors are also potentially vulnerable to the Spectre-NG problems.
How Serious Are The Flaws?
There have been no reports, as yet, of any of the 8 newly-discovered flaws being used by cyber-criminals to attack firms and extract data. According to the magazine C’t, however, Intel had classified half of the flaws as “high risk”, and the others as “medium risk”.
It is believed that one of the more serious flaws could provide a way for attackers access a vulnerable virtual computer, and thereby reach the server behind it, or reach other software programs running on that machine. It has been reported that Cloud services like Amazon’s AWS may be at risk from this flaw.
Meltdown and Spectre
The original Meltdown and Spectre flaws were found to have been present in nearly all modern processors / microchips, meaning that most computerised devices are potentially vulnerable to attack, including all iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Meltdown was found to leave passwords and personal data vulnerable to attacks, and could be applied to different cloud service providers as well as individual devices. It is believed that Meltdown could affect every processor since 1995, except for Intel Itanium and Intel Atom before 2013.
Spectre, which was found to affect Intel, AMD and ARM (mainly Cortex-A) processors, allows applications to be fooled into leaking confidential information. Spectre affects almost all systems including desktops, laptops, cloud servers, and smartphones.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
The discovery of a family of 8 more flaws on top of the original 2 ‘Spectre’ and ‘Meltdown’ flaws is more bad news for businesses, particularly when they are trying to make things as secure as possible for the introduction of GDPR. Sadly, it is very likely that your devices are affected by the several or all of the flaws because they are hardware flaws at architectural level, more or less across the board for all devices that use processors. The best advice now is to install all available patches and make sure that you are receiving updates for all your systems, software and devices.
Although closing hardware flaws using software patches and updates is a big job for manufacturers and software companies, it is the only realistic and quick answer at this stage to a large-scale problem that has present for a long time, but has only recently been discovered.
Regular patching is a good basic security habit to get into anyway. Research from summer 2017 (Fortinet Global Threat Landscape Report) shows that 9 out of 10 impacted businesses are being hacked through un-patched vulnerabilities, and that many of these vulnerabilities are 3 or more years old, and there are already patches available for them.