Thursday, July 26, 2018

What is Fortnite, the game that is breaking records all over the world?

8:12 PM
The genre of video games "Battle Royale" is the success of the decade. This is the side of the multiplayer shooting games where the clashes are all against all; a kind of survival where you start with nothing and you build an inventory, while finishing the other hundred until there is only one.

First it was PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds: since the second half of 2017 it began to gather millions of adult players in this title of vast dimensions and realistic aesthetics.

Then appeared Fortnite: Battle Royale, a game that was initially based on construction but evolved with a game mode direct to what was being a trend. This work of the company Epic Games had only 7 million users in October, but now it has more than 45 million.



There is no doubt that one of the explanations of its success is that it is free. Unlike other video games that take away the sleep of the youngest - those who do not have the money to spend freely but depend on their parents - this work is free-to-play.

This means that starting to play does not cost money and, therefore, spending hours and hours with friends using voice chat only requires the console and Internet connection.

And despite everything, Epic Games has come out the round with more than 126 million dollars in revenue through cosmetic elements with this modality created in just two months.

It is also a title that enters through the eyes. Unlike other alternatives within the multiplayer shooters, Fortnite: Battle Royale has a graphic engine created by the company itself: Unreal Engine.

They are absolute connoisseurs of this tool, facilitating that both the animation of the characters and the recreation of the world are attractive for the youngest of the house and those who already have more than thirty.

A fundamental difference with other rivals is that you can build things, a mechanics that increases the player's intervention in the manipulation of the world; and unique games are created where, depending on what the future is constructed, it will take on an unexpected aspect.

The daily attention deposited to the project confirm the commitment of the study in the game: constant updates; new content each month that invites you to return to know how these developments affect the games; Few drops of servers online.

The arrival of Fortnite: Battle Royale to mobile devices has been the straw that has filled the glass, eliminating any remaining barrier.

The ElRubius Sunday event, with a streaming of 100 youtubers with more than 10 million viewers, highlights this video game.



Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Scientists discover how to implant holographic images in the brain

7:52 PM
One day you can see yourself breathing fresh air on an idyllic solitary island, with the clean ocean at your feet and your arms bathed in warm light while the sun sets on waters that undulate slightly ... Nothing around you except the perfect nature and you. You will ask yourself, is this real? Or are scientists projecting holograms in my brain to create a vivid sensory experience that is not really happening? For precisely a group of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley (USA) is in the early stages of assessing their ability to create, edit and eliminate sensory experiences of our brains, both in real time and in our stored memories. .



Would you put your brain in the hands of scientists who can create immersive worlds and even fool your mind to think that these images are real? This team of neuroscientists is trying to reverse engineer experiences by stimulating neurons to excite the same neural patterns.

Currently, the steps to achieve this are ... a bit invasive. Scientists genetically modify neurons with photosensitive proteins so that they can carefully manipulate neurons using light. This is what we know as optogenetics, for which a metal plate must also be implanted surgically on the target area.

In the new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists announced an essential first step to simulate false sensations in the human brain that are so real that our brains can think that they really are ours, that we experience them at some time.

Researchers Nicolas C. Pégard, Alan R. Mardinly and Ian Antón Oldenburg (under the supervision of Hillel Adesnik), detailed how they 'hacked' the brains of laboratory rats to create such false images. They used laser lighter flashes in the brain to activate or suppress individual neurons. By doing this, they were able to simulate patterns that mimic brain activity. Thus, they tried to show visual stimuli in the form of holographic obstacles, which the running mice tried to avoid actively.

The technology used to generate the holograms is called "optogenetics without 3D scanning with temporal focus" or 3D-SHOT. A liquid crystal display acts as a photographic negative, but for holograms. Using this negative, scientists mold the lasers in 3D patterns of their choice, inside the brain. Then, the laser pulses are fired every millisecond in bursts to maintain the hologram.

How did the researchers know that the mouse brain was effectively "cheated"?

"At the same time we used our holograms, we could see the neurons blinking," explains Alan R. Mardinly.

The scientists also recorded video footage of what they were seeing inside the brain of the rodents. The activated neurons shone fluorescent green, while the purple arrows indicated the laser light that activates them.



But it was not 3D-SHOT that caught the attention: "The ingenuity of the team led us to the advancement of the study: the ability to direct and fire specific neurons without causing neighboring neurons to activate.We knew that each neuron has its own distant target that you are trying to achieve, but unless you can enter and write a pattern in a neuron and not in the neighboring neuron, you do not have the ability to ask questions about what is happening and what these different patterns mean, "Oldenburg explains.

For some observers, the experiment invites comparisons with science fiction and fears that this technology will inevitably be used for mind control or emotional manipulation. The researchers reject this kind of thinking. First, just because in a mouse it can be done, it does not mean that in a human it does.

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

SmartThings, or how to turn Samsung Smart TV into the home brain

5:02 PM
Artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are going to turn the home into a connected paradise, with an essential protagonist who becomes the brain of all this scenario. And Samsung wants its SmartThings platform, created for this purpose, to be an essential actor. In this way, the Korean company will offer the customer an intelligent television experience so that they can access their content quickly and easily.

A personal assistant, a unique remote control and a Smart Hub will be the instruments to manage all compatible connected devices and appliances, thanks to the new SmartThings application.



SmartThings is an open standard for IoT that will connect Samsung products and any brand adhering to this protocol. Smart is the implementation of this approach in the entire line of Samsung TVs, and starts from the moment the TV is removed from box.

The first thing that the user has to do, before setting up his Smart TV, is to download the SmartThings application on his mobile device, be it Android or IOS. Customers who have Galaxy S8 Smartphone or later already have this app on their device. Once discharged, the TV on power-up detects the SmartThing app via Bluetooth. From here you just have to connect, configure the WiFi and use the SmartThing application to configure the Smart Hub screen and the applications that the client wants to appear on the main panel of your TV.

SmartThings not only helps to set up the TV. It also achieves that the mobile device can become a platform to see and interact with all the IoT devices that the user has in the home. But also SmartThings offers the client additional functions such as notification of connected IoT devices, display of the universal guide on the Smartphone, calendar appointments, notifications of the content of the TV, control of the TV on the Smartphone, control panels of all IoT devices connected, or access to the new functions of Ambient Mode and Universal Guide available on the Samsung Smart TVs of 2018.


One Remote, Universal Guide, TV Plus and Steam Link

Once the Smart TV is connected and configured with all the devices and with the SmartPhone through SmartThing, the customer can use the Samsung One Remote to navigate the content and operate the television using voice control. 2018 is the third year in which Samsung offers the One Remote solution that allows to control with a single command all the connected devices. It has autodetection, so the control will automatically recognize all the devices, controlling them at the moment, to avoid having the room full of controls.

In 2016 One Remote was able to control the television, the decoder, the video game console and the Blu-ray player. In 2017 Samsung's product control for audio and video was added as systems and speakers for home theater. And in 2018 Samsung adds the compatibility with audio and video products connected by optical cable.

With Samsung's Universal Guide, the user has a personalized panel that provides access to content from all sources, and integrated into a single screen for easy navigation. In this way Samsung is able to offer recommendations based on preferences and what the user has seen before, so the more you use it the better the recommendations.

The main screen of the Universal Guide is the "For you" screen, which offers recommendations according to your tastes, being a new feature in the television sets of 2018. This screen will show the current and upcoming content of the television in direct, 4K contents, and news , among others. For sports and music the offer of the guide is similar to that of the televisions of 2017. And the voice assistant allows vocal navigation and searches in the universal guide.



TV Plus, another reference feature of Samsung's Smart TVs, shows a separate icon that appears first in the Smart Hub section and adds content from different OTT providers to the TV channel line, making it easier to access that content. This platform being one of the largest in offering 4k content.


Solutions for the smart home

Also in the field of the IoT, and using Samsung's SmartThings platform, "V-Home by Vodafone" allows customers to control smart devices from their homes from the smartphone, compatible with the Samsung SmartThings ecosystem.

Thursday, July 5, 2018

The 3 best fitness bracelets of 2018: Top physical activity wristbands

4:55 PM
If you are looking for the best fitness bracelets of 2018, this is the perfect entry for you. We have selected the best physical activity monitors to place on your wrist. For all tastes and pockets. From the cheapest to some a bit more expensive but with many features.

The best fitness bracelets of 2018: Buying guide

What data do we want to register?
The most important thing: we must consider what is our sporting activity, and from there choose the wearable that best fits our needs. Some fitness wristbands collect the number of steps and calories burned. Others add a heart rate monitor that helps us know if we are doing the exercise correctly.



Do we want moral support?
Yes. Motivation is really important when doing sports, and many activity monitors have interesting functions to "force" you to do sports. In most you can select a daily goal and know when you have reached it, while others, through your app, allow you to get medals or compete against your friends. Many have alarms to warn you of your periods of inactivity.

Battery life
The typical battery life of these devices is one week, but we can find one with a duration of only two days and others with a duration of up to more than 1 year. The use of your fitness bracelet will also influence the battery life.

Waterproof
If your main sport is swimming, you need a water resistant wristband. But you also have to consider if you want a device with which you can get in without a problem in the shower and forget that you have it on you.

Smart functions
Do you want it to work as a smartwatch and give you notifications on your mobile? Incoming calls or messages will appear on your wristband.

Do you want to wear it on your wrist or somewhere else?
Not all of these activity monitors are put on the wrist, others work with a clip to put on clothes or even put in your pocket.

The activity monitor applications
Increasingly important. A good app greatly improves the experience of using the fitness bracelet. Fitbit and Jawbone have excellent applications. We will also be able to consult all our records on the PC or even online websites subscribing to the services provided by some brands.


The 3 best fitness bracelets of 2018: the best physical activity monitors

1.-Garmin Vívosmart HR+




  • Water resistant design
  • 5 days of battery life
  • GPS and pulse control
It's not that it has the best style in the world, but its features are truly spectacular. It has an accelerometer, barometric altimeter, GPS and an optical heart rate monitor. It is water resistant to 50M, so you will never have to remove it from the wrist. And best of all, the measurements it provides are very accurate. The Garmin App is very good. Its price is somewhat high.


2.-Withings Go




  • 1 "e-ink screen
  • Weight: 9grams
  • Compatible with Android and iOS
  • The battery lasts 8 months
It is a very simple fitness bracelet with an impressive battery life and a lot of options. Automatically track the steps of walking and running, calories burned, distance and swimming, in addition to controlling your sleep cycles. You can wear it on your wrist, hold it with the clip or in your pocket. On the other hand, you can not see the time on the dial and it does not have backlighting.


3.-Moov Now




  • With personal trainer
  • Resistant to water and dust
  • Serves running, cycling, walking, swimming, boxing
A curious design for a model that has enhanced the original fitness bracelet. Moov Now is designed to be worn on the wrist or ankle, and comes with two straps. He is able to record many types of activities. and has a 9-axis sensor that can capture any type of movement you make. It has a personal trainer by voice and the battery life is up to 6 months (button battery). The level of detail in their statistics is very good.