TV box helps colour-blind viewers

3 December 2014 Last updated at 15:29 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News Continue reading the main story

A set-top TV box that can help people with colour blindness better differentiate shades has been developed by a Cambridge firm.

Eyeteq, from University of East Anglia-based company Spectral Edge, alters colours frame-by-frame - without spoiling them for the non-colour-blind.

The technology could also be used on video games, the company said.

A colour-blindness awareness group has called for Eyeteq to be part of all televisions as standard.

The condition affects one in 12 men, and one in 200 women, with red-green colour blindness the most common.

According to Spectral Edge's website: "Eyeteq gently modifies colours in images in such a way that colour-blind observers enjoy both improved visibility as well as the overall appearance."

"With careful design using mathematical perception models," it adds, "we are able to remap colours to maximise discrimination for colour-blind people, at the same as minimising the strength of the effect for non-colour-blind people."

The company says those who are not colour blind do not mind the colour change as it is slight. It also said there is no noticeable lag as pictures are remapped in real-time, a process that takes milliseconds.

Liverpool woe

The technology had now reached proof-of-concept stage, Spectral Edge's managing director Christopher Cytera told the BBC.

"The next step is to refine and upgrade that proof of concept," he said.

"At the moment it's working at 720p resolution, we want to get it to 1080p."

Spectral Edge then plans to license the technology to manufacturers to include in new televisions.

Are colour blind gamers left out?

Next time you are playing a video game online and a member of your own team shoots you, spare a thought - they could be colour blind.

Read more

Colour Blind Awareness, a group promoting the needs of colour-blind people, said it believed Eyeteq should become a standard feature.

"It has such good feedback," said founder Kathryn Albany-Ward.

"When I tried it on my son, he gave it 10 out of 10 - it was like opening his eyes up."

She told the BBC the technology would greatly help when watching certain sporting events.

A recent European football match between Liverpool and Bulgarian side Ludogorets left colour-blind viewers frustrated as the teams played in red and green.

Continue reading the main story

Can you see a number in the image above? If not, you may suffer from colour blindness.

Those with the condition said it was like watching 22 players in the same kit.

Big market

Mr Cytera said he hoped his company's technology would become a "badge of honour" for manufacturers promoting accessibility credentials.

"There is a big market - 8% of men worldwide are affected, which is a huge number.

"Lots of great work done in audio description, and subtitling, but nothing so far for colour blindness."

Eyeteq works by presenting the viewer with a slider, allowing adjustments for severity.

The company has released a free mobile app for people to test out the system.

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

23.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

N Korea 'denies' Sony Pictures hack

4 December 2014 Last updated at 12:17

A North Korean diplomat in New York has said his country was not behind a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, according to reports.

The film giant suffered a huge leak of information after last month's breach.

US broadcaster Voice of America quoted the unnamed diplomat as saying claims North Korea had been responsible were a "fabrication".

Sony has hired security specialists but has not yet made any suggestion as to the source of the attack.

Independent security researchers said there were solid clues that the attack had originated in the secretive nation.

Sony has brought in the services of security specialists FireEye to investigate the breach, which reportedly saw computers across Sony Pictures rendered unusable, with staff told to switch off their technology.

The FBI is also involved - it alerted businesses to be aware of "destructive" malware that had recently been discovered.

Technology news site Recode on Wednesday said Sony Pictures and FireEye were poised to announce that North Korea had been responsible - although the companies have since denied this.

However, independent researchers have pointed out similarities in the malicious code used to hit Sony and a similar attack on South Korea last year.

The South Korean government said the attack, dubbed Dark Seoul, had been carried out by North Korea - although, like many cyber-attacks, the source was never confirmed.

Film anger

The suggested motivation for a hack from North Korea, commentators said, had been the country's anger at an upcoming Sony film, The Interview.

In the film, set for release at Christmas, Seth Rogen and James Franco play two reporters who have been granted an audience with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The CIA then enlists the pair to assassinate him.

North Korea said the film was "the most undisguised sponsoring of terrorism as well as a war action".

The country's UN envoy Ja Song-Nam said there would be a "merciless response" if the film was not cancelled.

However, the diplomat quoted by Voice of America - who asked to remain anonymous - dismissed reports his country had been involved in the attack on Sony.

"Linking [North Korea] to the Sony hacking is another fabrication targeting the country," he told the broadcaster.

"My country publicly declared that it would follow international norms banning hacking and piracy."

Earlier this week, a separate North Korean official gave a more ambiguous response, saying: "Wait and see," in response to a question about the attack.

Analysis: Leo Kelion, technology desk editor

Suggestions North Korea could be behind the Sony Pictures hack has drawn incredulity from some, surprised that the "Hermit Kingdom" might be able to pull off such a stunt.

In fact, experts say Pyongyang's cyber-skills should not be underestimated. One US government adviser warned last year that North Korean hackers posed "an important 'wild card' threat" to US and international security.

Being sure about how far its cyber-capabilities extend isn't easy. A report by Hewlett Packard's security division noted that most North Koreans were restricted to an intranet system, separate from the wider internet, which limits their links to the outside world.

But the report noted that the state's education system places special emphasis on mathematics, which has helped it develop skilled programmers, cryptographers and security researchers.

According to a report by Al-Jazeera, North Korean defectors have spoken of promising students going on a two-year accelerated university course before heading to China and Russia for a year to hone their hacking skills.

A US analyst quoted a defector who claimed to be part of North Korea's Unit 121 hacking squad until he escaped in 2004. He said some operations had been carried out from a Pyongyang-owned hotel in Shenyang, China.

According to HP, North Korea's "cyber-warriors" are thought to have carried out a wide variety of attacks, including:

• Spreading malware via video games
• Stealing details of foreign technologies stored on computers
• Carrying out distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), which knock services offline by flooding them with traffic sent from hijacked foreign computers
• Cyber-psychological operations - posting propaganda to social networks and "trolling" message boards

However, hacking a major corporation to make threatening demands is not a behaviour that has been linked to North Korea in the past, and the hashtag #GOP (Guardians of Peace) - used in the Sony attack - is not known to have been used by Pyongyang.

23.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

UK chipmaker reveals Raspberry Pi rival

4 December 2014 Last updated at 13:18

British chip designer Imagination has produced a barebones computer to compete with the Raspberry Pi.

Called the Creator CI20, the board has a more powerful processor than the Pi, more memory and more onboard storage.

For its graphics, it uses a version of the Imagination chip that is also found inside Apple's iPad tablet.

The small computer enters a growing and competitive market, with the Raspberry Pi already having sold almost four millions units.

The CI20 will cost £50 ($65) and can be ordered now, though the first units will not be dispatched to customers until January 2015.

As a chip designer, Hertfordshire-based Imagination is better known for drawing up the plans and specifications for processors that are used to handle graphics in Apple gadgets as well as phones from many other manufacturers.

With the CI20, Imagination is entering a market that is crowded with small form-factor, barebones computers that are being used by hobbyists and others for small embedded computing projects.

Anyone looking to buy a small computer can choose from the Raspberry Pi, the BeagleBone Black, Arduino Uno and Intel's Galileo and NUC devices.

Like its rivals, the CI20 can run many different versions of the open source operating system Linux and it can also run the latest edition of Google's Android mobile operating system.

It also has wi-fi and Bluetooth connectors onboard. By contrast, the BeagleBone Black and Raspberry Pi B+ devices have only Ethernet connectors built in.

Tony King-Smith, a spokesman for Imagination, said the CI20 was aimed at people who wanted a "high-performance" board for their development projects.

Writing on the Bit-Tech reviews site, Gareth Halfacree said there was no doubt that the CI20 was seeking to take part of the market that the Pi currently dominates.

However, he wondered, if the high price and "uncommon instruction set architecture" would limit its appeal.

One expert who has had time to test the kit also had doubts about its potential.

"There will be a modicum of pick-up, especially for people trying to develop for Android it could be a very useful low-cost device to have," said Chris Green, principal technology analyst at the Davies Murphy Group consultancy.

"But do I think it will make much wider impact? The answer is no.

"It just doesn't have the momentum that the Raspberry Pi has.

"The Pi was seen as a good cause and had backing from various corporations, the media and even government departments that gave it a good word because of the educational potential it had.

"The Creator CI20 is just a product, the Raspberry Pi is a movement."

23.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

Google plans child-friendly products

4 December 2014 Last updated at 11:23

Google is developing child-friendly versions of its search site, Chrome browser and video-sharing service YouTube, according to a US report.

Pavni Diwanji, Google's vice-president of engineering who is heading the project, revealed the plans in an interview with USA Today.

Ms Diwanji said the company was aiming to make modified versions designed for children aged up to 12.

Google has not said when the child-friendly products will be released.

"The big motivator inside the company is everyone is having kids, so there's a push to change our products to be fun and safe for children," Ms Diwanji told the newspaper.

As an example, she said a child searching for "trains" on a modified version of Google's search page might get back information about Thomas the Tank Engine rather than links to timetables and ticket-booking sites.

Wrapped around the child-friendly versions will be tools that let parents monitor and manage how much time their offspring spend online and where they go.

These novel versions of its products will be likely to go further than the "safe search" tools found on browsers and search sites available from Google and many others.

Google's initiative follows other projects it has run that are aimed at children. These include its virtual Maker Camp, a Doodle 4 Google competition for young people and its Made with Code initiative.

The company's plans could be limited by the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (Coppa), which specifies how much data can be collected about children and how it can be used. Heavy fines have been levied on firms that flout Coppa.

23.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

Steam Broadcasting takes on Twitch

3 December 2014 Last updated at 15:20

Steam - the popular PC video gaming platform - is adding the ability to stream gameplay so that others can watch online.

The move presents a challenge to Twitch, which is built around a similar service, and was acquired by Amazon for $970m (£618m) in September.

Steam has more than 100 million active accounts, nearly double the 60 million visitors a month claimed by Twitch.

But one expert suggested Twitch was still likely to dominate the sector.

Privacy options

Steam is software provided by the US company Valve that allows people to buy, support development of, play and discuss titles created by thousands of video game publishers.

It has emerged as the most popular way to buy Windows PC games. It also offers Mac and Linux-based software.

Steam's new facility can be accessed three different ways:

• via the Community section of its platform in a new sub-section called Broadcasts, which provides a list of games currently being played by random users
• via the platform's Friends menu or from a specific friend's profiles, which allows a user to follow the action of people in their social circle
• via an invitation sent by a friend who is already playing

Anyone playing a game via Valve's software can opt to let their progress be watched by others, and they are offered various privacy options that allow them to control who can activate a stream.

Broadcasters can provide voice-over commentary and text chat, but cannot appear in a superimposed webcam feed window as is common on Twitch, although they can show other computer desktop activity when not in-game.

Other restrictions include the fact that broadcasts cannot be saved to be watched back later, and that players have no obvious way to make money from their streams - two activities Twitch allows. However, Steam benefits from the fact that it does not require visitors to watch adverts before game streams begin.

"Valve has listened to what its customers have been asking for and has offered live broadcasting in its own way, which basically provides it with free marketing for the games sold on its platform," said Lewis Ward, a video games analyst from the IDC consultancy.

"Getting into the streams is very easy, and it seems it's done enough on the security side so if you don't want certain people to view your activity or are a parent who has concerns about your kids, there are ways to block it.

"So, it's done the core of what Twitch does but still lacks some aspects that make Twitch distinctive. And while I think it's a very interesting first step, I don't think it matches where Twitch is today."

The two companies are not alone in efforts to make gaming a spectator sport.

Google's YouTube is another major force, allowing players to stream and watch live gameplay as well as pre-recorded clips.

Hitbox.tv, Ustream and the in-development GamingLive.tv provide other alternatives.

But Mr Ward suggested that Steam Broadcasting should be able to co-exist alongside the dominant player.

"Twitch is platform-agnostic - it's kind of like Switzerland - and that neutrality means it can partner with lots of different companies," he said.

"It can focus on mobile and consoles as well as PCs - Twitch and Steam started allowing account linking over a year ago - so, I think it can take a broader view of gaming broadcast capabilities, which is where the market is going.

"And so long as Valve stays focused only on broadcasts of games played on its platform, then that's going to limit the potential growth of the new service."

23.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

Driverless car UK test cities named

3 December 2014 Last updated at 18:04

The four English locations picked to test driverless cars have been named.

Greenwich, in south-east London, and Bristol will each host a project of their own, while Coventry and Milton Keynes will share a third.

The decision was announced by the quango Innovate UK, after George Osborne's Autumn Statement.

The chancellor also announced an additional £9m in funding for the work, adding to the £10m that had been announced in July.

The businesses involved will add further funds.

Bristol will host the Venturer consortium, which aims to investigate whether driverless cars can reduce congestion and make roads safer.

Its members include the insurance group Axa, and much of its focus will be on the public's reaction to the tech as well as the legal and insurance implications of its introduction.

Greenwich is set to run the Gateway scheme. This will be led by the Transport Research Laboratory consultancy and also involves General Motors, and the AA and RAC motoring associations. It plans to carry out tests of automated passenger shuttle vehicles as well as autonomous valet parking for adapted cars.

In addition, a self-drive car simulator will make use of a photorealistic 3D model of the area to study how people react to sharing the driving of a vehicle with its computer.

"The combination of TRL's independent expertise; robust, reliable testing protocols and driving simulation facilities alongside the diverse and high calibre qualities of our consortium means we can safely demonstrate automated vehicles to build acceptance and trust in this revolutionary technology," said the firm's chief executive Rob Wallis.

Milton Keynes and Coventry will host the UK Autodrive programme.

This involves Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and the engineering consultancy Arup among others, and will test both self-drive cars on the road as well as self-driving pods designed for pedestrianised areas.

Part of this group's work will be to develop the technologies that will need to be built into roads and the surrounding infrastructure to aid vehicle navigation.

"Our plan with the practical demonstration phases is to start testing with single vehicles on closed roads, and to build up to a point where all road users, as well as legislators, the police and insurance companies, are confident about how driverless pods and fully and partially autonomous cars can operate safely on UK roads," said Tim Armitage from Arup.

The tests will last from between 18 to 36 months and begin on 1 January.

23.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gangnam Style 'broke' YouTube limit

4 December 2014 Last updated at 07:21

The music video for South Korean singer Psy's Gangnam Style exceeded YouTube's view limit, prompting the site to upgrade its counter.

YouTube said the video - its most watched ever - has been viewed more than 2,147,483,647 times.

It has now changed the maximum view limit to 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, or more than nine quintillion.

Gangnam Style became a worldwide hit when it was released in 2012, largely due to the surreal video.

How do you say 9,223,372,036,854,775,808?

Nine quintillion, two hundred and twenty-three quadrillion, three hundred and seventy-two trillion, thirty-six billion, eight hundred and fifty-four million, seven hundred and seventy-five thousand, eight hundred and eight.

YouTube's counter previously used a 32-bit integer, which is a unit used to represent data in computer architecture. This means the maximum possible views it could count was 2,147,483,647.

On 1 December, it posted a statement saying: "We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer... but that was before we met Psy."

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

In 2012 the BBC's Rico Hizon asks Gangnam Style's Psy the story behind his name

Google, which owns YouTube, later told website The Verge that engineers "saw this coming a couple months ago and updated our systems to prepare for it".

YouTube now uses a 64-bit integer for its video counter, which means videos have a maximum viewer count of 9.22 quintillion.

Psy has yet to comment although news of YouTube's change was posted on his Facebook and Twitter pages.

The second most-watched video on YouTube - Baby by Justin Bieber - lags behind Gangnam Style by more than a billion views.

23.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple 'wiped' rival music from iPods

4 December 2014 Last updated at 12:17

Apple has been accused by lawyers in a court case of "deleting" songs from rival services from some iPods during the past decade.

Users with non-iTunes music received a message telling them to restore devices to their factory settings when they tried to sync them, the court heard.

Apple said that the move was a legitimate security measure.

The competition case is examining whether Apple tried to lock down its iPod and iTunes market in 2007-09.

Apple's security director Augustin Farrugia said the company's attempt to keep iPods clear of any non-iTunes music was done to protect consumers from hackers and malicious content.

He added that the error message that appeared when users tried to sync the content of an iPod to an iTunes account was vague because the firm did not want to "confuse users" with too much information.

Jobs video testimony

Earlier the court saw the contents of an email that then Apple chief executive Steve Jobs sent in 2005 after learning that a rival company was about to introduce a program that would let music fans buys songs anywhere and play them on iPods.

"We may need to change things here," the email read.

Lawyers argue that there was an internal campaign to keep Apple's iPods free of music that was not purchased from the iTunes store.

By updating the iTunes and iPod software to block music from competing online stores, Apple operated a closed system which froze rivals out of the market, they say.

Later in the trial, jurors will hear from a Stanford economist who will claim that Apple inflated the price of iPods by nearly $350m.

Jurors will also see video testimony from Steve Jobs, filmed six months before he died.

The class action lawsuit, brought by individuals and businesses, is being heard in a US district court in California.

They accuse Apple of abusing a monopoly position in the digital music player market. The case has been going on for more than a decade and could see Apple pay out $1bn in damages.

23.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

Shops ban 'sexually violent' GTA 5

4 December 2014 Last updated at 13:41

Two Australian retail chains have removed video game Grand Theft Auto V from sale in its stores, following complaints about the depiction of violence towards women.

Target and Kmart stores pulled the game after a petition launched by three female survivors of violence gained more than 40,000 signatures.

Target said the decision "was in line with the majority view of customers".

Some fans of the game accused the stores of censorship.

The decision was made after three women set up a petition on change.org urging Target to withdraw the game.

"It's a game that encourages players to murder women for entertainment. The incentive is to commit sexual violence against women, then abuse or kill them to proceed or get 'health' points," the petition reads.

"To see this violence that we lived through turned into a form of entertainment is sickening and causes us great pain and harm."

It goes on to say that games like GTA 5 are "grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women".

A rival petition was launched soon after, urging the stores to continue sales.

"This game may allow you to kill, hurt, bash and shoot anyone not just females and this game should be on the shelves all over the country. It's made for adults not children, we have the right to buy games despite their content," said Brett Herbert, who launched the petition.

Customer feedback

Jim Cooper, general manager of corporate affairs at Target, said that the decision to withdraw the game had not been taken lightly.

"We've been speaking to many customers over recent days about the game and there is a significant level of concern about the game's content," he said in a statement.

"We've also had customer feedback in support of us selling the game, and we respect their perspective on the issue.

"However, we feel the decision to stop selling GTA 5 is in line with the majority view of our customers."

Target Australia posted on its Facebook page the news it was withdrawing the game and immediately received thousands of comments, many of them criticising the decision.

Kmart also decided to pull the game - both it and Target are owned by the retail group Wesfarmers.

Strippers and prostitutes

Set in the fictional city of Los Santos, Grand Theft Auto V allows gamers to control three criminals as they rampage through the town committing a series of crimes.

The game, developed by UK-based Rockstar North, was released a year ago and was immediately criticised for the levels of violence, particularly for its depictions of torture and the way it often portrays women as strippers and prostitutes

It carries an 18 certificate in the UK and an equivalent R18+ rating in Australia.

Despite criticisms about its content, it became the fastest-selling entertainment product in history, passing $1bn of sales in the first three days. It has also won 33 awards.

23.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

Kenya breaks 'cyber crime network'

4 December 2014 Last updated at 13:49

Kenyan police say they have cracked a cyber crime centre run by 77 Chinese nationals from upmarket homes in the capital, Nairobi.

Police believe they were involved in hacking and money laundering. The group has been remanded in custody for five days to allow for further investigations.

The foreign ministry summoned a Chinese diplomat to discuss the arrests.

A Chinese official said the embassy was co-operating with investigations.

It was checking the passports of the suspects to see whether they were, in fact, Chinese nationals, the official told the BBC on condition of anonymity.

'Military-style dormitories'

Police raids were triggered by a fire on Sunday at a home in Nairobi's Rhunda estate in which one person died.

"Preliminary findings show the fire was caused by one of the servers they were illegally operating," the director of Kenya's Criminal Investigations Department, Ndegwa Muhoro, told the privately owned Standard newspaper.

Numerous telephone headsets, computers linked to high-speed internet and monitors were found.

"The suspects are being interrogated to establish their mission in the country and what they wanted to do with the communication gadgets," Mr Muhoro is quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

The charges against the 77 so far include "being in the country illegally and operating radio equipment" without the necessary permits, AFP quotes an unnamed source as saying.

The suspects had been living in "military-style dormitories", and Chinese officials were shocked by the revelations, the Standard reports.

The group had been preparing to "raid the country's communication systems" and had equipment capable of infiltrating bank accounts, Kenya's M-Pesa mobile banking system and ATM machines, according to Kenya's privately owned Daily Nation newspaper.

Kenya's Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed summoned China's ambassador on Wednesday and "made it clear that the Chinese government should fully cooperate on this matter," Fred Matiang'i, the communications minister, said.

"China promised to send investigators to work with ours on this matter," he added.

The BBC's Paul Nabiswa in Nairobi says the raids come at a time when many Chinese companies are investing heavily in Kenya, especially in the construction industry.

The Kenyan government has signed many bilateral agreements with China and Chinese nationals have roles in government programmes, including in higher education institutions, he says.

23.34 | 0 komentar | Read More