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Vizio smart TVs tracked viewers around the clock without consent

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Vizio, one of the world’s biggest makers of Smart TVs, is paying $2.2 million to settle charges that it collected viewing habits from 11 million devices without the knowledge or consent of the people watching them.

According to a complaint filed Monday by the US Federal Trade Commission, Internet-connected TVs from Vizio contained ACR—short for automated content … Read More → "Vizio smart TVs tracked viewers around the clock without consent"

Man’s pacemaker data leads to arson and insurance fraud charges

Authorities from Ohio arrested a man named Ross Compton and charged him with arson and insurance fraud based on his pacemaker data. Compton told the police that when he saw his house burning on September 19th last year, he packed his suitcases, threw them out his bedroom window and carried them to his car. However, since has a serious heart condition and other medical issues that would have made it extremely difficult for him to do all those, the cops were able to secure a search warrant for his pacemaker data.
Read More → "Man’s pacemaker data leads to arson and insurance fraud charges"

Wearables watch your skin to prevent dehydration

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It can be easy to forget to stay hydrated, particularly for people like athletes or soldiers. That’s why a number of groups have been developing wearable devices that measure the user’s hydration levels for them, letting them know when they’re getting low. One of the latest comes to us from North Carolina State University, and it can take the form of either a wrist strap or an … Read More → "Wearables watch your skin to prevent dehydration"

Eavesdropping AI detects the tone of conversations

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MIT researchers have developed an system that makes use of a wearable device to detect whether the tone of a conversation is happy, sad or neutral. For those with Asperger’s, or other conditions that make it difficult to understand regular social cues, this could offer a future where a digital social coach in the pocket could help relieve anxiety.
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Orangutan will use ‘Tinder’ to find her mate — but first needs a tablet she can’t smash

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Scientists at a Dutch zoo want to test Tinder on a female orangutan to study how the animals make their mating choices. The 11-year-old orangutan, called Samboja, lives in the Apenheul primate park in Apeldoorn. Scientists hope that by showing her images of potential mates on a touchscreen tablet they can observe how she responds and learn whether appearance alone has an … Read More → "Orangutan will use ‘Tinder’ to find her mate — but first needs a tablet she can’t smash"

Astronauts’ brains change shape as they learn to move in space

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Before we start sending humans to Mars en masse, it’s probably a good idea to investigate the health effects that long-duration spaceflight can have on the human body. A new study has found that space travel can change the volume of gray matter in different parts of the brain, which may be a result of fluids shifting due to a lack of gravity, and the brain working overtime to … Read More → "Astronauts’ brains change shape as they learn to move in space"

New technology ‘reads’ the thoughts of ALS patients

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Birbaumer and his colleagues’ new clinical trial offers some fresh hope to CLIS ALS patients with a new brain-computer technology that can essentially “read” the thoughts of these patients and translate their answers to caregivers through a computer interface. Their results were published today in the journal PLOS Biology.

The system takes the form of a noninvasive … Read More → "New technology ‘reads’ the thoughts of ALS patients"

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