A new patent from Google details a system that uses eye-tracking cameras and AI to ascertain a user's facial expression from eye imagery. Essentially, it works by seeing what a user's eyes look like when they're putting on a certain facial expression, then comparing that image data to the normal look of the user's eyes to build a profile of what that facial expression looks like. In this way, it's able to figure out what set of eyes belong to what expression, then output relevant data based on said expression. In the patent, the technology is supposed to be used in a head-mounted display. Though it could theoretically be applied in other devices, such as smartphones and laptops, the utility of such a function would be decidedly limited, since there would be less compute resource usage involved in simply observing the user's expression; such equipment does, after all, have a view of the user's full face at most times. Background: The way it works is actually somewhat similar to … [Read more...] about Google Patent Guesses Facial Expressions Via Eye Tracking
Google Play wants your opinion: Vote for your favorite app, game, and movie here!
Got a favorite app, game, or movie on Android? If so, you can now show your appreciation by voting for it in Google Play's new survey! Google has highlighted what it deemed as "the best and most popular" apps, games, music, movies, TV shows and books in its yearly "Best of" awards for quite some time now. However, in 2018, the tech has decided to reach out to fans in order to assign a "Fan Favorite" prize in the aforementioned three categories. There are 20 candidates in each group. Some of them are from 2018, while some have been around for quite a while. Voting wraps up in two weeks, and the winners will be announced on December 3, 2018. Here are the three categories and all of the apps, games, and movies that made the cut. You can cast your vote by clicking on each of the respective titles. … [Read more...] about Google Play wants your opinion: Vote for your favorite app, game, and movie here!
John Lewis Oxford Street has a Google smart home you can try out
If you found yourself in John Lewis’s flagship store on Oxford Street this weekend, you might have noticed a new robotic staff member in the form of the Google Assistant. The high-street retailer has opened an interactive 827 sq ft Google-powered smart home so customers can try out some of the tech giant’s products first hand. The space has been established to demonstrate how people can use Google Assistant products in their home, whether its in the living room, kitchen or bedroom. The new Google Home Hub makes an appearance, which is essentially the Google Home smart speaker but with a screen, as well as the Google Home Max speaker, the Chromecast Ultra and Nest security products including the Nest Hello doorbell. There are also some accompanying smart products from other companies that work alongside the Google Home range, including Philips Hue smart lightbulbs and the LightWave smart sockets. John Lewis’s smart home buyer, Katrina Mills, said the space is … [Read more...] about John Lewis Oxford Street has a Google smart home you can try out
Google Officially Releases Dedicated YouTube Music App Into The Play Store [APK Download]
Update 1: 2015/11/12 10:07am PST Since the Play Store page is US only, we've got the APK. You can download the goods from APK Mirror below. Google quietly unveiled a new YouTube Music app when it rolled out YouTube Red last month, and we've been waiting ever since to see it become available in the Play Store. Well, today's the day. Google has officially announced its new YouTube app dedicated entirely to music. YouTube Music is free to use, just like regular YouTube. It pulls up music videos and turns them into an endless stream of songs. Think of it as radio with a video component. You can't really create playlists, aside from putting together a giant list of all the songs you've ever liked. Though you do have the option to tweak your stream to introduce more variety. Folks with a YouTube Red membership get to enjoy the videos without ads. Being a paying customer also comes with the benefit of listening to music in the background, offline, or without video. Signing into the … [Read more...] about Google Officially Releases Dedicated YouTube Music App Into The Play Store [APK Download]
Google will remove Play Store apps that use Accessibility Services for anything except helping disabled users
For years, Android has allowed apps to modify the behavior of other applications, using Accessibility Services. While the intended purpose is for developers to create apps for users with disabilities, the API is often used for other functionality (to overlay content, fill in text fields, etc.). LastPass, Button Mapper, Signal Spy, Tasker, and Greenify are just a few examples of applications heavily using this API. While Accessibility Services can greatly extend the functionality of applications, they can potentially create a security risk. Once granted the right permissions, the API can be used to read data from other apps. Likely for this reason, Google has sent emails to app developers regarding the usage of Accessibility Services. The developer of BatterySaver received this message: We’re contacting you because your app, BatterySaver System Shortcut, with package name com.floriandraschbacher.batterysaver.free is requesting the … [Read more...] about Google will remove Play Store apps that use Accessibility Services for anything except helping disabled users