Lifeboat Foundation

🏛️⛩️ ✍️ Lorenzo Teppati Losè et al.

The launch of the new iPad Pro by Apple in March 2020 generated high interest and expectations for different reasons; nevertheless, one of the new features that developers and users were interested in testing was the LiDAR sensor integrated into this device (and, later on, in the iPhone 12 and 13 Pro series). The implications of using this technology are mainly related to augmented and mixed reality applications, but its deployment for surveying tasks also seems promising. In particular, the potentialities of this miniaturized and low-cost sensor embedded in a mobile device have been assessed for documentation from the cultural heritage perspective—a domain where this solution may be particularly innovative. Over the last two years, an increasing number of mobile apps using the Apple LiDAR sensor for 3D data acquisition have been released.

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly automating tasks like translation, text classification and customer service. But tapping into an LLM’s power typically requires users to send their requests to a centralized server—a process that’s expensive, energy-intensive and often slow.

Now, researchers have introduced a technique for compressing an LLM’s reams of data, which could increase privacy, save energy and lower costs. Their findings are published on the arXiv preprint server.

The new algorithm, developed by engineers at Princeton and Stanford Engineering, works by trimming redundancies and reducing the precision of an LLM’s layers of information. This type of leaner LLM could be stored and accessed locally on a device like a phone or laptop and could provide performance nearly as accurate and nuanced as an uncompressed version.

Phishing gang arrested in Belgium and Netherlands; Europol seizes luxury goods, cash, and millions stolen.

That ordinary smartphone in your pocket could be a powerful tool for investigating outer space. In a new study, researchers at Google and CU Boulder have transformed millions of Android phones across the globe into a fleet of nimble scientific instruments—generating one of the most detailed maps to date of the uppermost layer of Earth’s atmosphere.

The group’s findings, published Nov. 13 in the journal Nature, might help to improve the accuracy of GPS technology worldwide several-fold. The research was led by Brian Williams of Google Research and included Jade Morton, professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at CU Boulder.

“These phones can literally fit in your palm,” Morton said. “But through crowdsourcing, we can use them to change the way we understand the space environment.”

Scientists at UCL and the IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) have created a temporary tattoo with light-emitting technology used in TV and smartphone screens, paving the way for a new type of “smart tattoo” with a range of potential uses.

The technology, which uses organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), is applied in the same way as water transfer tattoos. That is, the OLEDs are fabricated onto temporary tattoo paper and transferred to a new surface by being pressed on to it and dabbed with water.

The researchers, who described the process in a new paper in the journal Advanced Electronic Materials, say it could be combined with other tattoo electronics to, for instance emit light when an athlete is dehydrated, or when we need to get out of the sun to avoid sunburn. OLEDs could be tattooed on packaging or fruit to signal when a product has passed its expiry date or will soon become inedible, or used for fashion in the form of glowing tattoos.

Satellite technology is impressive. But scientists fear there might be too many filling up our atmosphere. Here’s why.

Cybersecurity firm McAfee says it’s identified a “significant global increase” in a smartphone hack that triggers extortion, harassment and drains bank accounts.

McAfee says hackers are increasingly deploying a group of malicious financial apps containing “SpyLoan” malware, posing a serious threat with more than eight million active installations around the world.

The apps are on Google Play and use the names, logos, brand colors and interfaces of well-known financial institutions.

Siddarth Kara’s bestseller, “Cobalt Red: How the Blood of Congo Powers Our Lives,” focuses on problems surrounding the sourcing of cobalt, a critical component of lithium-ion batteries that power many technologies central to modern life, from mobile phones and pacemakers to electric vehicles.

“Perhaps many of us have read how lithium-ion batteries are vital for energy storage technologies,” says Eric Schelter, the Hirschmann-Makineni Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. “But how materials that make up such batteries are sourced can be concerning and problematic, both ethically and environmentally.”

Schelter says that cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which supplies about 70% of the world’s cobalt, raises concerns due to environmental degradation and unsafe working conditions, and that large-scale mining disrupts ecosystems and can contaminate water supplies, leaving lasting environmental damage. In addition, he notes that a looming cobalt shortage threatens to strain global supply chains as demand for battery technologies continues to grow.

Running massive AI models locally on smartphones or laptops may be possible after a new compression algorithm trims down their size — meaning your data never leaves your device. The catch is that it might drain your battery in an hour.