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Sony has cut the PS5's weight after raising its price
Sony has started to sell a new PlayStation 5 model that may not necessarily improve performance, but will be lighter and possibly easier to produce.
UK to spend $1.6 billion on the world's fastest weather supercomputer
The UK's weather service, the Met Office, will spend £1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) to acquire the world's most powerful climate supercomputer, the government has announced. That's over ten times more than its current Cray XC40 cost, but it will deliver more timely and accurate forecasts. That could make the difference in knowing whether your flight will be canceled or your street flooded, according to the service.
Porsche dreams up a Star Wars ship inspired by its Taycan EV
Here's a Star Wars marketing tie-up you may not have seen coming: Porsche has teamed with Lucasfilm to create a fantasy spaceship based on the Taycan EV. While the "Tri-Wing S-91x Pegasus Starfighter" won't appear in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker next week, it will be presented as a five foot scale model at the film's LA premiere, Porsche said.
App allows citizen scientists to track monarch butterfly migration
If you've ever pulled out your phone to take a picture of a butterfly, researchers want your help. A team from the University of Maine is using an app that lets citizens scientists along the East Coast take photos of monarch butterfly migration sites and log details about where they're found. The responses will be compiled in an online database and help researchers determine if their monarch migration predictions are accurate.
One of these models doesn't exist
Virtual humans are gradually scaling the uncanny valley, and like artificial intelligence, they're coming for our jobs. A case in point is Imma, a digital Instagram model who has garnered over 50,000 followers thanks to her (its?) trendy, street-style selfies and photos. Imma just entered uncharted territory for 3D rendered humans, appearing in a makeup spread with two real models for Kate cosmetics in Vice's i-D site in Japan.
Google model identifies restaurants that could give you food poisoning
Google could soon tell you which restaurants are more likely to give you food poisoning, thanks to an algorithm that can identify lapses in food safety in near real time. Working with researchers from Harvard University, Google tested a machine-learned model in Chicago and Las Vegas to identify user search queries such as "stomach cramps" or "diarrhea", and then cross-referenced them with saved location history data -- in particular recently-visited food establishments -- from the smartphones used to make those searches.
MIT's AI can identify breast cancer risk as reliably as a radiologist
Breast cancer affects one in eight women in the US. There are multiple factors involved in developing the disease, but one issue is dense breast tissue. Some 40 percent of US women have dense breast tissue, which alone increases the risk of breast cancer, and can make mammogram screening more difficult. Now, researchers from MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have developed an automated model that assesses dense breast tissue in mammograms as reliably as expert radiologists.
MIT's AI can tell if you're depressed from the way you talk
When it comes to identifying depression, doctors will traditionally ask patients specific questions about mood, mental illness, lifestyle and personal history, and use these answers to make a diagnosis. Now, researchers at MIT have created a model that can detect depression in people without needing responses to these specific questions, based instead on their natural conversational and writing style.
AI offers a new way to look inside living human cells
Over the course of their careers, biologists develop a huge mental library of cell structures and their corresponding data. Investigating specific areas of a living cell involves a piecemeal approach, identifying how some parts work with others and spending time on cell labelling. But now, the Allen Institute for Cell Science has launched the first predictive 3D model of a live human cell -- the Allen Integrated Cell -- and it could be "a total game changer", according to researchers.
Tesla will manufacture Model 3 parts at the Gigafactory
Nevada governor Brian Sandoval has announced that Tesla will bring some of its manufacturing for the Model 3 across from California. At a speech outlining policy initiatives for the last two years of his term, Sandoval revealed that the car company will build electric motors and gearboxes in the state.
Disney can digitally recreate your teeth
Digital models of humans can be uncannily accurate these days, but there's at least one area where they fall short: teeth. Unless you're willing to scan the inside of someone's mouth, you aren't going to get a very faithful representation of someone's pearly whites. Disney Research and ETH Zurich, however, have a far easier solution. They've just developed a technique to digitally recreate teeth beyond the gum line using little more than source data and everyday imagery. The team used 86 3D scans to create a model for an "average" set of teeth, and wrote an algorithm that adapts that model based on what it sees in the contours of teeth in photos and videos.
To scale Solar System model built across seven miles of Nevada desert
If you treat the Earth as a marble, what would an accurate, to-scale model of the Solar System actually look like? Something much larger and expansive than a textbook illustration would suggest. To explain the sheer scale of our planetary system, Wylie Overstreet, Alex Gorosh and some friends decided to build their own model at a dry lakebed in Nevada. Using a reported scale of 1 astronomical unit per 176 metres, the group leveraged seven miles of empty desert to plot the planets and etch their orbital lines into the dirt. Sure, you can't print it out or keep it on your desk, but it's a novel idea and does a fantastic job of putting our Solar System into perspective. After you've finished watching the short below, we recommend heading here to see how it was all put together.
Celebrities get digital puppets made from paparazzi photos
Typically, recreating a celebrity as an animated 3D character requires painstaking modeling based on motion capture and laser scans. In the future, though, all you'll need is a few limo-chasing photographers. University of Washington researchers have developed a system that creates digital face "puppets" by running a collection of photos -- in this case, paparazzi shots -- through special face tracking software. The digital dopplegangers (such as Kevin Spacey and Arnold Schwarzenegger) bear an uncanny resemblance to their real-world counterparts, but are sophisticated enough to mimic the expressions of virtually anyone else. Want the Japanese Prime Minister saying Daniel Craig's lines? You can make it happen.
Security conference effectively bans booth babes from its show floor
The issue of booth babes -- scantily clad people attempting to lure unsuspecting buyers towards second-rate products -- has once again reared its head within the industry. This time out, cryptography and information security gathering RSA has effectively banned them, mandating that all attendees will wear clothing that's appropriate for a professional environment. According to a statement released to TechTarget, people will be unable to display "excessive cleavage," and won't be able to wear tank tops, tube tops, miniskirts or minidresses. RSA go on to say that any scantily dressed people found on the show floor would be asked to put on a sweater or leave.
City of Titans shows off socketed model
There's a long way to go before City of Titans reaches the superheroic heights of its spiritual forebears, but the team is eager nonetheless to show that progress is being made. That's why it's putting on a 12 Days of Devmas series, kicking off with the revelation of the fully socketed body model that the team is using for testing purposes. "Odo's an artist's model we're using while we continue to develop the base body mesh," the team posted. "He lets us continue work on the rest of the game while we develop the sliders and other parts that make the characters super. Of course, you'll notice he still has every joint that the final character will have. Fingers and all. He's the digital version of a wooden artist's mannequin, with all the flexibility of our real model." In successive posts of the series, Odo is shown with various weapons including a slide rule and keytar. [Thanks to Bryan for the tip!]
World of Warcraft shows off revamped Tauren ladies
As Warlords of Draenor approaches release, the art team behind World of Warcraft continues finishing the revamped models for the game's races. The latest race to get a revamp is the female Tauren; while male Tauren have been in the beta client for quite some time, players have until now seen only quick shots of what the new female model would look like. Now you can see her in all her glory, and even at a glance it's a massive improvement. The original model was extremely angular and low-detail due to the technology available when the game was first made, but the revamped model has much more definition in her fur and body shape. The only big silhouette change is a shrinking of her hands, with the official design blog calling the original model's hands "out of control." Take a peek at the official preview for more details on the updated ladycows.
Warlords of Draenor: Artcraft provides first look at new female draenei
Just the other day Artcraft revealed the new male tauren models--complete with animations and videos--and today they're at it again with a sneak peek at the (real) new draenei female model. This is a quick look, as emphasized in the post itself, because the model has yet to be sent to the animation team. As a result you'll notice her posture in this preview is quite different from the draenei model we know and love. That will change once the animation team gets a chance to properly rig and pose the model, but for now we're getting a glimpse of a work very much in-progress. At first glance, the new draenei model doesn't seem as different from the old one as the tauren or orc models, for example, but this is to be expected. The original draenei (and blood elf) models, implemented in Burning Crusade, were a significant step up from the models of classic WoW. That being said, there's marked improvement in these previews. The hair, the detail of the leg musculature, and in particular the hands all give our beloved draenei much more depth and finesse in the body. The curvature of her head-tentacles is also much smoother and more realistic-looking. This is a nice upgrade from the current draenei, and I look forward to seeing more.
Warlords of Draenor: Artcraft reveals new male tauren model
We had a bit of a sneak peek of the tauren model this weekend thanks to Adriacraft, and now we get the official preview with an Artcraft at the official site. Now, I play tauren quite a bit - they're my favorite Horde race, in fact - so I'm happy to see them get an update. The current model looks good enough in plate, but the years haven't been kind to it as new races with upgraded polygon counts and more points of articulation were introduced. Going from a pandaren warrior to a tauren was an exercise in time travel - the older model looked every bit its age. As for this model, I think it's already an established improvement just by virtue of not having the mane look like straw heaped onto the back. Clearly, great effort has been made to keep the model true to itself while still looking updated, and although I'm a little iffy on the eyes, I'm hopeful that we'll see some variation in that regard. The video is particularly helpful for getting to see it in action. It's a far, far more effective model for conveying emotions via expression - it's hard to imagine seeing a tauren look this expressive, frankly. Seeing the open mouthed belly laugh alone convinces me that this is a far, far improved model in all regards. In general, I find it much improved - now I just want to see how they do with the female model. Head on over to the official site and see the process detailed.
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MMObility: Rail Nation is perfect for armchair engineers
Travian Games' Rail Nation, a new browser-based, non-combat MMORPG, is intriguing, especially if you are a fan of trains, sim management, and friendly player competition. Admittedly, much of the competition in the game is just as cutthroat as I have seen in more "hardcore" games, but at least there is no blood involved. Players start off with a very basic train and route, and a friendly NPC called William L. Smith explains things nicely to get things moving. The idea is to connect your trains to goods, open new routes, and upgrade your fleet of trains to help level your city (a group of players) as you pass through six different eras of technology. Each era lasts two weeks, and the last era is a competition between the 10 highest ranking cities in the game. As you grow you'll also need to open more routes by adding new tracks, which require more goods. Many industries are not even visible on the map until the player unlocks them, giving the game a real feel of moving forward in time. Travian Games likes to put a time limit on gameplay, meaning that there is a true "win" scenario for players to pursue. While I'm not a big fan of a time limitation on an MMO, and I'm definitely not very skilled at micromanagement, Rail Nation is a lovely game that is relaxing to play. It does take time to grow on you, and its beta access means that the game still has a few issues that need to be ironed out.
Patch 5.4: Hearthstone game board model datamined
The folks over at MMO-Champion have uncovered a Hearthstone game board while datamining the latest patch 5.4 PTR build. With the Hearthstone beta starting Soon™, we're wondering how the model will be integrated into WoW. Will it serve as a simple doodad to decorate inn tables or will it play a part in an in-game Hearthstone event? Let the speculation begin. I haven't had the opportunity to try Hearthstone yet, but from what I've seen so far, I'm definitely excited about the game. And if Blizzard manages an epic in-game tie-in to WoW for the beta or release, even better. Would you participate in an in-game cross-promotion? Even if I didn't give two hoots about Hearthstone, earning a mount or a pet is all the convincing I'd need.
