Top Bananas | Category Archives: Software

Project Marzipan

Posted on January 13, 2019 by admin Posted in Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Project Marzipan is Apple’s framework to allow iOS apps to run on the Macintosh.

Last year during their Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC), Apple introduced Project Marzipan, which is a framework designed to make it easy to convert iOS apps to run on the Macintosh. Apple used their own framework to port several of their iOS apps to the Macintosh such as the Stocks app.

With iOS and mobile computing becoming far more important than desktop/laptop computing, it only makes sense for developers to focus exclusively on iOS programming because then they’ll be able to write apps for iOS and port them to the Macintosh.

Otherwise you’ll haver to write apps for iOS and macOS. That’s not too much of a problem since iOS and macOS are so similar but it does require you to write slightly different code. With Project Marzipan, the goal is to let you write an iOS app and let Apple’s framework convert it to run on the Macintosh with little work on your part. That way you’ll have two apps capable of running on the Macintosh and iOS.

For ordinary users, this simply means the Macintosh will soon get more apps. This can make the Macintosh more attractive but it will likely give developers an incentive to focus exclusively on iOS and then use Project Marzipan to create Macintosh apps that may not be optimized completely for the Macintosh.

So developers will likely need to tweak their code to make their app better for the keyboard/mouse interface of the Macintosh from the touch screen interface of iOS.

The Macintosh will likely never take over the desktop/laptop market with Windows PCs so entrenched in the corporate world. Then again, it doesn’t really matter since the world is moving towards mobile computing anyway.

The Macintosh has been around since 1984 and it likely won’t get any more innovative. So look at Project Marzipan as a way to keep iOS developers happy by giving them a larger market for their existing apps. Project Marzipan is not likely to attract more people to the Macintosh just for the ability to run iOS apps. Project Marzipan is interesting and will likely appear during 2019’s WWDC, but it’s just a short-term solution to help transition the world towards mobile computing so they can leave the world of desktop/laptops behind.

To learn more about Project Marzipan, click here.

Artificial Intelligence Can Identify Fake Police Reports

Posted on October 29, 2018 by admin Posted in Software Leave a comment

What it is: An artificial intelligence program can detect fake police reports with 80% accuracy.

How do people learn? Through experience, which means exposure to massive amounts of similar data from the same type of source. For example, police learn to detect lying by constantly exposing themselves to criminals and learning common factors that exhibit lying and telling the truth. They’re not always right but a rookie cop will be far less knowledgable than a veteran simply because the veteran has more experience. The same holds true for artificial intelligent.

Artificial intelligence (AI) learns by examining massive amounts of data to look for commonalities. Police are now using an artificial intelligence program called VeriPol that uses automatic text analysis and machine learning to identify false statements. The AI program was developed by researchers from Cardiff University and the Charles III University of Madrid, and can detect false reports with 80% accuracy.

The AI tool is able looks for false statements, such as a focus on the items stolen (usually smartphones and other high-end items) rather than the incident itself; a lack of detail which suggests that the reporter is not truly using their memory; limited details of the attacker, a lack of witnesses, and a failure to contact law enforcement immediately after. The biggest problem with analyzing police reports is that the police don’t have the time or staff to analyze fake reports so an Ain program like VeriPol can quickly identify potentially fake reports to free up personnel.

VeriPol has analyzed reports around Spain and researchers hope to test the program in other parts of the world as well. Any repetitive type of information can be detected by a trained person or an AI program. VeriPol simply demonstrates that AI can be smarter than the common criminal.

To learn more about the AI program that can detect fake police reports, click here.

Apple Intern Turns to Medicine

Posted on October 26, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical, Software Leave a comment

What it is: An Apple intern used his Apple Watch to monitor the pulse of an unconscious woman.

While on a flight from Arizona to Washington D.C., Brian Shear, an intern at Apple, helped a physician monitor an unconscious woman on the plane. Using his Apple Watch, Brian Shear captured the woman’s pulse information and then gave that information to doctors so they could use that information to help her. That’s when Brian Shear decided instead of working for a company making lifesaving equipment, he wanted to become a doctor and use technology to help others.

Brain Shear is now studying medicine at Central Michigan University and came up with another idea from his time at Apple. The hospital created a 50-page manual for brain tumor patients. Brain decided to turn this 50-page manual and convert it into an ebook using the free iBooks Author program. By making the manual interactive, Brian believes that patients will use and read the information. Even better, he can easily send this manual to others and duplicate it freely, completely eliminating printing costs with the paper manual.

By using the Apple Watch and iBooks Author, Brian Shear has shown how doctors in the future can use technology to save lives and provide information to patients. To read more about Brian Shear, click here.

Camera Improvements in Software

Posted on October 23, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Software Leave a comment

What it is: The physical size of a smartphone limits the size of the camera lens, so the only way to improve camera quality is through software.

At one time, film camera dominated. When digital cameras appeared, they took chunky pictures so film enthusiasts could rightly point out that film was superior, which it was. Then digital photography gradually improved until it equalled and eventually surpassed film. Now hardly anyone uses film any more.

This same pattern is now playing out in camera quality. Dedicated cameras always have room to add bigger lenses that smartphone cameras can never duplicate. For this reason, dedicated film enthusiasts claim that smartphone cameras can never surpass dedicated cameras.

The problem is that physical lenses can only improve to a certain point. On the other hand, software improvements rely on processing images given the physical limitation of a smartphone lens. Initially, these software improvements still created inferior images compared to dedicated cameras, but software can keep improving while physical lenses cannot. Eventually, software improvements in image quality will equal and eventually surpass the physical lenses on dedicated cameras.

There’s a physical limit to image quality through bigger lenses. There’s no limit to image quality through software improvements and processing power. The only way dedicated cameras can compete is by adding processing power of their own, which will drive up their cost to make them impractical for most people. The future of photography is software.

Smartphones will likely continue using one, two, and even three-lens solutions to capture more light and data to process, but it won’t change the fact that the only way to improve image quality is through software that processes an image in ways that a physical lens on a dedicated camera can’t do.

If you want to see the future of anything, just look at what’s superior and see if its improvements can keep pace with its newest competitor. In the case of photography, physical lenses can never improve as rapidly as software improvements so that means smartphone cameras will one day replace most dedicated cameras.

Just as film used to be the standard for photography, so will dedicated cameras one day fade away like film. The future is computational photography.

Disney-Backed Virtual Reality Company Switching to Augmented Reality

Posted on October 15, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware, Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Jaunt, a Disney and Google-backed startup in virtual reality is laying off employees.

Jaunt is a virtual reality startup that raised $100 million by promoting themselves as a virtual reality pioneer. The huge problem with virtual reality is that nobody has defined a specific use for it. Technology needs to solve problems and right now, virtual reality solves no distinct problem. While virtual reality has use in specialized applications such as training astronauts or soldiers, it’s too expensive and cumbersome for everyday use.

That’s why Jaunt has laid off employees and is shifting to augmented reality. The huge problem with virtual reality is that it requires an expensive and bulky headset to use, and by blinding the user, can only be used in safe areas such as a home or office. That means virtual reality ties you to a specific location. Even worse, nobody has defined a specific purpose for virtual reality beyond gaming and expensive simulation such as training potential astronauts to explore other planets.

Virtual reality is failing for the following reasons:

It solves no specific, pressing need
It requires expensive, dedicated headsets
It blinds the user, limiting its use to fixed, immobile locations

Augmented reality has a far brighter future because it can be displayed on smartphones and tablets that people already own, it can provide directions overlaid on real images, and it can be used practically anywhere.

For Jaunt to raise $100 million without having a clear business goal shows how blinded people are to the benefits of virtual reality. They’re enamored of technology without identifying what problem that technology actually solves. Until people know what problems virtual reality can solve, virtual reality companies like Jaunt literally have no future.

The future isn’t virtual reality but augmented reality, and that’s why Apple is heading in the right direction with augmented reality on mobile devices and eventually on wearables like smart glasses. Augmented reality is far more flexible, versatile, and practical so it’s going to be used more often than virtual reality can ever be used. Augmented reality enhances reality. Virtual reality replaces reality. Augmented reality will always have a brighter future than virtual reality.

Apple Buys Danish Augmented Reality Firm

Posted on October 10, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What is is: Apple recently acquired a Danish augmented reality firm called Spektral.

It’s no secret that Apple is moving ahead with augmented reality as the next big feature of mobile and wearable computers. The initial use for augmented reality will bur in mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, but the long-term use for augment4ed reality will lie un wearable computers such as smart glasses.

To bolster their technology in augmented reality, Apple recently acquired aDanish company called Spektral. This company was working on technology that relied on machine learning and computer vision technology, handling object separation for video running at 60 frames per second.

Basically, it appears that the technology can block out unwanted areas and replace it with a green screen effect, replacing a background with a different background.

For example, you could point your camera at a person and remove the background to make it look like they’re standing in front of an ancient jungle filled with living dinosaurs. Spektral touted their technology as enabling mixed reality.

How green screen effects will be used will appear in the future, but for now, it’s obvious that Apple is pushing its resources into augmented reality for more than just the iPhone and iPad. Expect smart glasses in a few years that will eventually surpass mobile devices in the same way that mobile devices have largely supplemented desktop/laptop PCs.

Augmented reality and mobile computing (along with wearable computing) is the future, and Apple’s acquisition of Spektral simply confirms this.