mind control

Will there be Mind Control for real?!

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Well turns out we’re all screwed. We may not even know what free will is even more, mind control could be happening!

Ok enough movie quotes, let’s get on to the real reason as to why we may be seeing Jedi mind tricks in the real world at some point in the future. Hope you’re sitting down for this, scientists have suggested that we humans could tuen into mindless ‘cyborg’ type super consumers. The same technology has been used on rats – successfully. Well, it’s time to turn off all technology. It was nice knowing you!

Mind Control: Shopping

It relates to shopping. A team of researchers working at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology discovered that by stimulating a certain part of a mouses brain. The process triggered a craving, a craving for possessing unnecessary objects. Looking at you impulse buyers! The intended use of the discovery of this process is intended to treat people. The idea is to treat people with brain disorders such as kleptomania or hoarding. However, they also stated that it could be used to ‘control human behaviour’

You may think that craving objects is quite scary in and of itself. Prepare to be bamboozled. The team said that it can control the behaviour with a technique known as MPA-Induced aDrive Assisted Steering. This, when used, made the mice chase whatever is in front of them whenever the same region is stimulated.

Psychological

The joy that we as children got when we recieved a toy from our parents has followed us into adulthood. We experience the same sort of lust for objects – one example of this would be if you have a shopping addiction. Which of course, could be used to exploit us, coroporations couold make us shoppers just grab anything, mindlessly. Though, would mean shops would have access to our brains. Which isn’t going to happen.

Professor Kim noted that:

‘This study provides evidence to treat brain disorders such as compulsive hoarding and kleptomania. ‘It also contributes to the development of technology to control the behaviour of animals and humans using strong innate motivation, and thus could impact neuro-economics, defence and disaster relief.’

So there is some good to the mind control news. Of course, the treatment of brain diseases. But disaster relief could be good if it got more people to safety. But again it needs access to the brain!

 

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Staring at a screen

Staring at a screen won’t make you go blind!

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We are not doctors so do not take our advice! Then mess up your eyes and then sue us. Please take this and use the information about staring at screens damaging or not damaging your eyes at your own risk.

So allegedly according to a report by some scientists staring at a screen all day doesn’t damage your eyes. With the Verge reporting that, Nielsen reports that we spending up to 10 hours a day in front of a screen. So we can all sigh a collective sigh of relief that we all won’t go blind! Yay! However, there is a chance that you may feel uncomfortable after a period of time. That’s due to the backlight. There is also a chance that you will experience symptoms of eye strain and discomfort. Scientists call that Computer Vision Syndrome.

With Dr Rebecca Taylor stating in their video report that “The devices that we use, do not appear to cause any long term eye damage”

The reason we feel some discomfort is due to our eyes blinking less when we look at a screen. Dr Bozung reporting in their video report. That we can blink up to 67% less or slower than we would without looking at a screen.

Staring at a screen: Discomfort

If you are experiencing discomfort, the guys over at the Verge suggest that you can adjust the height of your monitor and/or desk setup to help ease the pain. Could even use moistening eye drops. The Vege also suggest a 20-20-20 rule. (Which we’ve never heard of before here at the How To Kill An Hour office!)

The rule is, for every 20 minutes you stare at a screen, you should stare at something 20ft away for a total of 20 seconds. The Verge also report about some special blue light filtering glasses that can help, but scientists don’t believe in those claims at all!

Our screen’s refresh rate can also affect our eyes, so for example a 60hz refresh rate monitor will cause your eyes to focus more often. Therefore causing you to tire quicker. The faster the refresh rate, the less often your eyes will need to refocus. The Verge are also reporting that positioning of your monitor also can affect your eyes discomfort. A 20degree angle at an arms length away is a good distance to eye health ratio. Brightness and contrast can also have an affect. Also fonts that you use can cause a problem! (Size most often) Lighting and the environment your in also has an affect. So staring at a screen isn’t so simple after all!

Apple have gone someway to combat discomfort in recent years with things such as Night Shift and Truetone, designed to lessen the blue hue in your phone’s screen!

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Alexa Blueprints

Alexa Blueprints

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Alexa is great and is one of our favourite smart voice assisstants available today! However, would you like it if you could make Alexa, just that little bit more personal? Would you like to make your own Alexa commands? Even your own Alexa, voice controlled games? Now you can with a new feature and website from Amazon! Head over to bluerprints.amazon.com to get started on your very own Alexa commands. Furthermore you don’t even have to know how to code! Plus you can make as many different Alexa skills as you like!

Alexa Blueprints: How To

Alexa Skills are just like the apps you have on your smartphone, but are placed on your Amazon smart speaker instead. There’s already loads available on the Alexa Skills Store! You can download apps which help fit your lifestyle, order a pizza, order a cab even pull down the latest football scores!

Once you start using Blueprints you can use templates that are available to you to create your own personal Alexa skill within minutes! You can create anything that your heart desires. Be that custom games, to-do lists, learning! Furthermore you can get creative with them and make things such as a learning and knowledge skill but make it about your family. Such as a trivia game “Alexa, open My Family Trivia”

There are a whole host of skills that you can make, simply browse the blueprints that are available to you in the following categories:

 

  • Fun & Games
  • At Home
  • Storyteller
  • Learning & Knowledge

What skill are you going to make? Let us know by contacting us via our social media pages, we’re @howtokillanhour across all socials!

 

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Robots

Robots Replacing Us?

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So, it turns out that Robots are here to take over and there’s nothing we can do about it. They’re even going to be taking over our pets lives. Maybe even their jobs! (Can being our pet be classed as a job?) Well, it might as well be because they’re about to be booted from existence in our lives in favour of their metal counterparts!

Here are 5 Robots that may come take over the world:

Pet Robots

Zoomer Kitty. Yes that is it’s real name.

It’s a smart pet cat, a robot cat. It can feel your touch and purrs in response to it. Zoomer Kitty even does things that your own cat cannot. It can sing! Well hum. It hums three blind mice. (Poetic Irony? Or just trolling)

The Zoomer Kitty is described as a ‘tailed cushion that heals your heart’ So, at least the cat won’t poop in your house. Consequently, saving a lot of money on cleaning materials.

Wait? A tailed cushion!?! Since when did people use their cat as a cushion?!?!?! Most of all, WHO is using their cat as a cushion?

Babysitter Robots

The Cocotto from Panasonic is being described as a robot that can act as an ‘educational companion’ for your kid. Yes that’s called a Playstation 4.

It can talk to your children in a weird robotic sound that sounds something out of a horror movie.

But it can chat to our children and understand what is being said and even ask to go to the bathroom!?

However, the main aim for Cocotto is to build a child’s conversational skills through motion and communication.

Colon Robots?!

Robots  are coming to the medical industry too!

Instead of having a finger up your bottom, or even a camera. Now you can put a robot up there to look for any problems instead!

All joking aside though. The robot can do really good and is designed to ease the passage of colonoscopies to prevent cancer.

 

Assistant Robots

CLOi from LG is their aim at being Alexa’s smarter sister. CLOi will recognise each family member and interact with them accordingly. Furthermore the smart robot will interact with all the different smart technology in your home. Also, there are Waiter, Porter and Shopper concept versions even exist too!

So, CLOi is kind of like a smart hub, that will interact with every other LG enabled smart tech in your home. Looking at the video above. LG are indeed looking to make their own Alexa. Not just a smart assistant but with a more talkative, human like experience, Smart hub.

 

Book Reading Robots

Firstly, you don’t even have to read your child a bed time story.

This is Luka. Luka is an intelligent robot that can help your child read any book. As well as this educational aspect, Luka can also teach them good habits. Also, Luka can play interactive games (which are educational too!) As one of them is called the ‘Tooth-Cleaning contest!

Human Robots

This is Simroid. Simroid has been designed to help practasing dental surgeons hone their skills before being let wild at your teeth. The robot is designed to act like a human. It sits in a dentist chair, following orders from budding surgeons. Also, it would even make facial expressions if they make mistakes and cause pain!

Simroid is not just for teeth either. Another version was created to simulate the effects of swine flue. The robot was coated in human like skin. Furthermore, it sweats, moans, cries, convulses – just as us humans would if we were infected with H1N1. Lovely. What’s even more crazy is that the robot can DIE! If the robot is not treated correctly symptoms worsen and then the robot dies.

 

Astronaut Robots

Furthermore, IMB have created Crew Interactive Mobile Companion. CIMON for short. It’s designed as a companion robot for all the lonely astronauts up there in space on the ISS.

However, CIMON will even help with simple tasks, display diagnostic data and it can even be a friendly psychotherapist due to its complex neural network.

Probably best start packing our bags now eh?

Credit goes to the Metro

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One Plus 6!!

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One Plus have today announced a brand new phone – the One Plus 6!

Features

The One Plus 6 features an all glass all design and has a 6.28 inch fill Optic AMOLED 19:9 display. This is the largest ever screen that One Plus have put on a phone. Providing users with as much screen real estate as possible! Designing the navigation bar so that it can be replaced by gesture controls. It has an incredible immersive viewing experience, yet retaining a similar form factor to the ever popular One Plus 5T.

Glass

One plus have used some of the toughest glass available in it’s phone’s too: Cornering Gorilla Glass 5, on both the front and the back of the phone. Creating sligh curves to create an uninterrupted look and feel! This is due to Gorilla glass’s strength and malleability! That’s not all, due to an all glass design the One Plus 6 is able to transfer radio waves at an ever faster rate! providing users with up to 1 gigabit of download speed!

Furthermore the One Plus 6 takes use of Qualcomm technology and is the fastest phone the company have ever made! Which makes streaming high end HD quality content to playing immensely powerful and graphic hungry games a breeze!

All that computing power will take it’s toll on the phone’s battery. However, fear not, as One Plus have a trick up their sleeve that you will love. The One Plus 6 can charge a full days power in just half an hour!

Camera

The One Plus 6 has a dual camera system, a 16MP camera which is the main. It is supported by a second 20MP camera, which has a f/1.7 aperture. The main 16MP camera has been bolstered by a 19% larger sensor and OIS. Therefore creating oustanding performance in a range of lighting situations. The advanced HDR feature has improved too! The One Plus’ High Dynamic Range algorithm brings out the shadows and enhances lighting in photos taken.

There is also a portrait mode that will be available on both the One Plus 6’s front camera as well as the rear. Using AI, the front camera applies a depth of field, or bokeh affect to selfies. Which can be stylised too with circles, hearts and stars.

Not forgetting the introducion of Slow Motion mode too, the One Plus 6’s camera can capture high definition video with incredible detail!

Design

One Plus have gone into incredible detail with their designs. The Mirror Black and Midnight Black versions have an embedded thin layer of film under the glass to creates a sense of depth as light and shadow move on the device. While a jagged texture was added to the Midnight Black to create a subtle S-shaped line when the phone is reflected in light, much like the Silk White limited edition version of the One Plus 6 which uses pearl powder to create a subtle shimmering effect.

OS

The One Plus 6 uses Oxygen OS, an Android OS that is refined, faster and cleaner, reflecting the look of the One Plus 6. Consequently the One Plus 6’s Oxygen OS is much more customizable than other Android experiences, allowing a user to make their phone more personable than ever!

Please see a gallery of the One Plus 6 below:

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The One Plus 6 comes in various memory sizes and available from May 22nd in North America and Europe! Simply head over to oneplus.com! The sizes available are 64gb, 128gb and 256gb! Prices start from £469, while the limited edition Silk White version will be available from June 5th.

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Apple leaks

Memo about Apple leaks – Leaked.

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Firstly, I’m getting more convinced we’re all living inside a movie each and every day. Apple, the huge tech company, prizes itself on secrecy and the mysterious allure it has! Apple like’s to keep things under wraps around it’s software and hardware each and every year. So they’re going to take a very hardline on anyone who breaks NDA’s. So those Apple leaks we get giddy about, someone, has put their job on the line to leak the information, hence why we always get blurry images and bit part information. Well turns out, that according to Bloomberg, Apple’s had 12 employees arrested over the course of the year for leaking information regarding future software plans. This was part of a memo which leaked.

Apple leaks: The Memo

In the memo, it stated that it had caught 29 people who had leaked info over the course of the last year. 12 of which were arrested. They were employees, contractrors and supply chain partners. So Apple has a job on it’s hand, to keep everyone in line when it comes to secrecy around their products. As there’s A LOT of people that are handling precious and important information on a day to day basis.

According to Bloomberg the memo read:

“Leakers do not simply lose their jobs at Apple….In some cases, they face jail time and massive fines for network intrusion and theft of trade secrets, both classified as federal crimes.”

Furthermore, the memo allegedly goes on to warn employees of any potential ‘friends’ that they may make from the media. Stating that the people aren’t your friends. They are just trying to get information out of them for their own benefit.

“While it may seem flattering to be approached, it’s important to remember that you’re getting played,”

Which reads like your telling you about a shady love interest. Apple are cool, even when you’re being warned about future work conduct!

Listen to the guys chatting about this by clicking here! 

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Amazon Key

Amazon Wants Your Boot: Amazon Key

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Your car boot that is. After successfully launching Amazon Key, Amazon are looking to launch a similar system. Yet, this time delivering items to your car.

However, the scheme is only available to those who own newer models of GM or Volvo vehicles and 37 US cities.  Also deliveries being made using the Amazon Key for cars scheme are limited. Deliveries are only to be made to cars that are parked in a publicly accessible area. Which means cars that are parked on driveways, office car parks or on streets in front of a house or a block of flats.  This means no deliveries to be made to private garages or other such areas that aren’t readily or easily available.

How It Works

A user simply downloads the Amazon Key app, as they would do for the home version. Then link the app to their vehicle. Furthermore, just like the home version, the app will give users a delivery slot. Inform them when it’s on the way and when it has been delivered. Consquently the app also keeps a log of when their car has been locked and relocked. Just like on the home version.

To combat theft, the packages are delivered into a boot and placed/hidden out of sight. To Amazon’s credit, the giant online retailer have been making strides in this area.

Privacy

For a number of years the company have placed an emphasis on leaving packages in an area where they cannot be stolen. Or atleast very difficult to steal from. Amazon even offer secure lockers in available locations for the customers in urban areas.

“Receiving a package securely and reliably in your car, without you having to be there, is something we think many people will appreciate…..This mix of car and commerce is starting the next wave of innovation and we intend to be at the forefront.” – Atif Rafiq, chief digital officer at Volvo Cars.

Furthermore there has been worries of privacy. Are Amazon going to track where by car is at all times? Rohit Shrivastava, the general manager of Amazon Key, shared this concern and calmed everyone’s fears. Also he states that the system that Amazon uses for Amazon Key is “Securely Encrypted” and they cannot see or track a users car.

Listen to the guys chatting about this by clicking here!

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Facebook Listening

Facebook Isn’t Tapping Your Microphone

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There’s been a lot of information and news around Facebook lately. Most of it is about data, our personal data. However, earlier on in the year, Facebook drew criticism for allegedly listening to our conversations. Facebook listening to us sounds like a crazy idea. Facebook listening to us sounds horrifying! But is it actually true? The guys over at the Verge went ahead and done some myth busting around the whole thing!

Mark Zuckerberg even had to state during his privacy hearing in congress that the whole idea of Facebook listening to it’s users was a ‘conspiracy theory’

Facebook are said to have been listening to us, as we, as users. Have seen ads for the stuff we have been talking about with friends. Yet according to the Verge it’s not down to listening at all. It’s all down to very clever ad targeting. They know everything you do. It’s all because of you too. You’re the one giving Facebook this information, so don’t be surprised when you get super accurate ads.

  • They know your browsing history because of cookies and trackers. Facebook has their own inhouse one called Facebook Pixel.
  • The ‘Like’ button you may use on a news website. Information is fed back to facebook.
  • What you look like (uploaded photos)
  • Where you like to spend your free time (location data when you tag yourself in places)
  • The things you buy! (the Facebook ads you click on and then consequently purchase)

Facebook knows more than you think. It’s not down to eavesdropping that would violate a ton of wiretapping laws. It’s all down to you. You’re the one giving them this information. It may look creepy, but their just feeding back the information you gave to them back to you. Think of it as a gift from a loved one. You forget about it and then, as you forgot, act all surprised that they remembered what you wanted for your birthday. Think of Facebook ads like that.

The reason why it appears to appear on your screen right after you spoke about it? All psychological. Andreas Andrietta of the Electronics Frontier Foundation, stated in the Verge’s report something interesting. That ad may have been running there the whole time, but as you are more aware of it, after speaking about, your more inclined to notice the ad.

You provide Facebook with so much data, they don’t need to tap your microphone. Even if they could. They could. They have the tech to do it. Nigel Cannings of Intelligence Voice, states that the tech is super simple. But it requires a lot of differing factors to identify you. Such as geometric data and geofencing, which with Facebook, you give out that data. This would work simply on a very very very small scale. However, Facebook has huge numbers of people on their platform, there are just simply too many people to do this feasibly.

Even if they could do it anyway, there’s too many of us and B, it’s highly illegal to do so.

For a more detailed look at this head on over to the Verge and check out their video on the subject, it’s very interesting!

Listen to the guys chatting about this by clicking here! 

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WhatsApp ban

WhatsApp banned for Under16

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So there’s going to be a WhatsApp ban. WhatsApp are raising the age of the minimum age of it’s users to 16 across Europe. The current age limit for the messaging app is 13. However, the company are enforcing stricter rules ahead of the new data privacy rules due to be enforced in Europe in May. Yet, if you’re from outside Europe, the age is still 13.

The messaging service will ask for EU users to confirm their age before accepting new terms of service. The WhatsApp ban is unknown as to how it will affect the number of users. As the service which has 1.5billion users from January. Furthermore WhatsApp have confirmed that they will not be asking for any more rights to their personal data.

WhatsApp Ban: Facebook

Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, are introducing a similar data policy. With users aged between 13 and 15 having to get permission from a parent or guardian for them to share information on the platform. If no permission is given, the teen will not see a fully personalised version of Facebook.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Download WhatsApp here: Apple / Android

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Anvio VR

Multiplayer Madness in Virtual Reality – Anvio VR

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Recently we got invited down to Anvio VR a brand new ‘VR Playground’ that has opened up in London recently. They’re brand new in London and opened in early 2018, so as lovers and enthusiasts of virtual reality and all things technology, we thought we’d head down and check it out!

Unlike a lot of VR games or events this is an experience in which you’re allowed to play! Hence why they’re describing it as a playground! What we mean by play is that you’re free to move around. As you’re not confined to a small play area. So you get to run around a HUGE room and experience, quite literally, a whole new world!

In the worlds that Anvio VR have created you can run, jump and even wave to your partners whilst in the game, all that and much much more! Their play area is also fully wirless so there’s no worry about running into a wall or falling over wires. Thus creating a much more realistic and immersive experience. Plus there’s guides in the room, who are there to help prevent you from crashing into any walls, if you do manage to find your way to a wall that is!

Currently Anvio have two games available to play:

Anvio VR: City Z

This game lasts 45mins and is for a team of 4 ages 12 and up. You’re provided with an assault rifle or a mele weapon to play whilst in this game. The City Z gameplay mixes close quarter combat and full blown warfare. You’ll be thrown in to dark corridors and be aware if you’re afraid of heights! What are you fighting? An How To Kill An Hour favourite: ZOMBIES!

Anvio VR: Lost Sanctuary

This game too lasts 45mins and for a team of 4 ages 12 and up. Yet instead of action, this is a puzzle game and you got to focus on the traversing environment. You’ll be transported into an ancient abandoned city, your task is to find out more about the city and look for the treasure! As you’ll too be faced with combat and some heights!

To purchase tickets of your own to go and venture in multiplayer madness please click here!

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