Helm DB12 Mobile Amplifier

I am excited to review two advanced audio quality boosting gadgets for mobile devices this month. The first of these addresses a key issue all smartphone or tablet users will have faced when trying to play music, movies, or podcasts over high-quality headphones or external speakers; volume. No smart device can output the sheer loudness of a separate Hi-Fi or dedicated media center amplifier meaning if you want to watch films or listen to high-quality music with friends you inevitably have to compromise on sound quality and volume.

The @HelmAudio DB12 provides a 12-decibel gain boost plus an optional 6-decibel bass boost
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The new HELM DB12 AAAMP Mobile Headphone Amplifier addresses the low-level volume our portable devices output, providing a 12-decibel gain boost plus an optional 6-decibel bass boost. This boost in gain is vital for power-hungry headphones like planar magnetic or high-impedance types, ensuring you hear the best quality sound and it also makes sure plugging your device into a portable battery-powered speaker or mini Hi-Fi gives you sound levels that will fill a room at a party or in a shared movie screening.

The @HelmAudio DB12 addresses a key issue all smartphone or tablet users will have faced when trying to play music, movies, or podcasts over high-quality headphones or external speakers; volume
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This is an in-line, analog amplifier and connects to your device’s audio out via male 3.5mm jack and outputs back to a female 3.5mm jack, as such it is easy to use and connects seamlessly via all the headphone or audio cables
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Two features make the DB12 such a success. This is an in-line, analog amplifier and connects to your device’s audio out via male 3.5mm jack and outputs back to a female 3.5mm jack, as such it is easy to use and connects seamlessly via all the headphone or audio cables you might already have. Also, key to the design is the integration of THX AAA Amplifier Technology which provides the power efficiency needed to deliver a rich, “unmasked” stereo field running off the DB12’s small, rechargeable battery.

Most amplifiers require power and extra cables. The DB12 is 100% portable with 6+ hours of battery life per charge and features exclusive in-line silver coiled (highest conductive metal) cabling delivering studio-quality amplification on the go with zero fuss.

Key to the design is the integration of THX AAA Amplifier Technology which provides the power efficiency needed to deliver a rich, “unmasked” stereo field running off the DB12’s small, rechargeable battery
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With over six hours of mobile playtime, the HELM DB12 AAAMP transforms your mobile device into a portable hi-fi audio solution. As a seal of its superior audio design and output, it has also achieved THX Certification, meeting the highest industry standards for its sound quality and performance.

“Working together with our partner in audio innovation, THX, we have infused the HELM DNA with some of the latest and greatest audio technologies on the market to create a world-class mobile headphone amplifier,” said Eric Johnson, chief executive officer of HELM Audio. Powered by THX AAA technology the HELM DB12 AAAMP provides +12 dB of zero distortion volume gain, improved stereo imaging, and clarity (true linear amplification), plus an optional user-controlled +6 dB bass boost. The ground-breaking DB12 is simple, the plug & play in-line amplifier delivers maximum volume, improved sound quality, and bass enhancement to any headphone on any mobile device.

In practical use, the amp is simplicity itself to use and that valuable boost in volume really does make your smartphone or tablet a useful media station. Hooked up to my demanding headphones it sounded bold and very pleasing. The same was true when connected to my Hi-Fi. I didn’t have to crank the volume as high as I would otherwise and the sound quality was more solid than when the DB12 was not connected. This is an analog amp so there is no digital magic going on inside to improve the sound and I did notice a tiny loss of fidelity in complex music tracks when using the DB12 but nothing that would bother anyone less of an audiophile than me and much less loss in quality than I expected from such a small battery-powered gadget.

In practical use, the amp is simplicity itself to use and that valuable boost in volume really does make your smartphone or tablet a useful media station
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The optional Bass Boost it offers is also great, offering a small but significant boost to the lower frequencies without muddying the mids and treble. Charging is super easy, the battery lasts a good few hours, and the metal construction and high-quality cable Helm use mean this is all round a great device. I love it and it will become an essential part of my tech travel kit.

Winner of an “Innovation Award at CES 2020,” the HELM Audio DB12 AAAMP is small enough to fit into the palm of your hand and plugs seamlessly into any mobile device (Android, iOS, macOS or PC supported) delivering analog amplification from your mobile device to any pair of 3.5mm headphones or an external speaker.

For those of us who don’t keep over 100GB of music files on their phone (hem hem) and prefer to stream from services such as Spotify or YouTube Music the DB12 will make a great difference when used with expensive, power dependant headphones. You know, the big ones that make you look like a Cyberman 😉

Specification:
• Studio Grade Amplifier with Bass Boost Powered by the Award Winning THX® AAA Amplifier Technology. Boost the Sound from your Mobile or Gaming device to your Headphones
• World’s First In-Line Audiophile Quality Headphone Amplifier That Fits In The Palm of Your Hand and a separate Bass Boost feature
• Delivers Maximum Volume +12dB for the Cleanest Signal, Improving Sound Quality and an Independently Controlled Bass Boost +6dB Turning any Mobile Device Into a Full Blown Studio Experience
• Plug & Play: No Additional Components or Connections
• Utilizes the THX AAA Lowest Distortion Rated Streamlined Amplifier
• Game-Changing Ultra-Clean Power Breathing New Life into Your Favorite Headphones Anywhere You Go
• 100% Mobile: Rechargeable Battery With 6-8 Hours Play Time

Charging is super easy, the battery lasts a good few hours, and the metal construction and high-quality cable Helm use mean this is all round a great device. I love it and it will become an essential part of my tech travel kit
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If you need to boost your mobile device’s audio then I can recommend you give the DB12 a try! They are available now for £199 now directly from the Helm website here.

Cyrus SoundKey

The second mobile audio device we are looking at this month is from the excellent British company Cyrus. The Cyrus SoundKey unlike the Helm DB12 is a DAC (Digital-to-Analogue Converter) for your smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC so it connects to the digital output on your device which is always some form of USB unless you are an Apple iOS user in which case it is most likely a Lightning port. I was blown away to find that the SoundKey comes with high-quality OTG USB adapters for all the different flavors of USB right in the box! If however, you are iOS user you will have to use a Lightning Camera Kit connector which Cyrus doesn’t supply as it is a proprietary Apple product.

I have tested and owned several Hi-Fi sized DACs and was blown away that most of the quality of these large, expensive devices has been boiled down into a tiny little USB key by @Cyrus_Audio
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I can attest that the boost in audio quality is huge and that once you have used an @Cyrus_Audio SoundKey you will never go back
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A DAC takes the digital audio info from the device and refines and improves it via special circuitry to make it sound better in every way. I have tested and owned several Hi-Fi sized DACs and was blown away that most of the quality of these large, expensive devices has been boiled down into a tiny little USB key like this. I can attest that the boost in audio quality is huge and that once you have used a SoundKey you will never go back. The clarity, sound stage, fidelity, bass response, and overall balance of your music and movie soundtracks will leap forwards. It draws power from your device but claims it is very low current and I have not noticed any impact on my phone’s charge at all during use.

Via my Galaxy S9+ MP3, Flac, and M4A files sounded so much better I was still re-listening to my favorite tracks three hours after first plugging in the SoundKey, I just couldn’t stop listening to how wonderful my old files now sounded. Streaming Spotify also sounded a load better, even when tested with mid-range earbuds. Hooked up to my MacBook Pro (which already produces very good audio) movies were so much more enjoyable with the breadth of the soundscapes wrapping right around me and placing me in the middle of the action. With Jurassic World, for example, plugging in the SoundKey showed off the excellent mix, every rustle in the jungle stood out and the cacophonous roars of the dinosaurs were more complex and chilling.

Hooked up to my MacBook Pro (which already produces very good audio) movies were so much more enjoyable with the breadth of the soundscapes wrapping right around me and placing me in the middle of the action
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SoundKey is an award-winning revolution in mobile music. Hi-Fi streaming services like TIDAL mean fantastic quality is available to subscribers, but phones lack the necessary hardware to get the best from this data. SoundKey unlocks that data, using our years of expertise in high-resolution DAC and amplifier design. Cyrus quality audio is now available to everyone.

If you care about sound if you truly love music and movies you have to get one of these. For under a hundred bucks it will change the way you engage with audio on your laptop or mobile device. Simplicity is the name of the game here, just plug the SoundKey into your macOS, Windows Vista+, Android 5+ and iOS9+ (all require OTG connection) device and it will work seamlessly. On computers, you will of course have to flip the Audio Output from ‘Device’ to ‘SoundKey’ but that is one click and you are done.

Simplicity is the name of the game here, just plug the @Cyrus_Audio SoundKey into your macOS, Windows Vista+, Android 5+ and iOS9+ (all require OTG connection) device and it will work seamlessly
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If you care about sound if you truly love music and movies you have to get one of these. For under a hundred bucks it will change the way you engage with audio on your laptop or mobile device
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Unbelievable Sound Quality
• Improved clarity, more realistic sound
• Works with Windows Vista+, Android 5+ and iOS9+* (all require OTG connection)
• 3.5mm Jack for headphones connection
• Robust aluminum casing
• Extremely low current, conserving your phone’s battery life
• Compatible with a wide range of audio format, including MP3, AAC, and FLAC
• Can handle High-Resolution audio files up to 24bit/96kHz
• Size 5.4cm x 2.3cm x 0.8cm
• Weight 18g
*Requires Apple Camera Kit for connection to iOS devices

Find out more here and I strongly recommend you pick up one of these Cyrus SoundKeys right now, you will never go back! Their British website has a dealer locator for several countries but they are also available on Amazon in most places for about $99 or £79.

Wisdom Panel Essential Dog DNA Test

You might have noticed a lot of doggy tech in the last few review posts, well that’s because the tech for pets market is growing fast. We love our pets almost as much as we love ourselves and spend accordingly 🙂

I was super excited to try out @WisdomPanel Essential Doggy DNA test. I have a pack of pedigree Staffordshire Bull Terriers so was keen to see if their pedigree status was justified, as well as the expense
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In these crazy days there is nothing wrong with that! So I was super excited to try out Wisdom Panel’s Essential Doggy DNA test. I have a pack of pedigree Staffordshire Bull Terriers so was keen to see if their pedigree status was justified (as well as the expense!).

In terms of appearance, dogs are one of the most diverse species on the planet. Which is why it’s hard to believe a Yorkie and Great Dane are nearly identical on a genetic level. Thanks to the 15,000 years that have passed since humans and dogs learned to live together, there are now over 350 unique dog breeds, types, and varieties recognized worldwide. Through DNA testing, we can map the “ancestry”—or origin story—of your dog, from their breed breakdown to family tree, going back several generations.

The Essential DNA test Wisdom offer for dogs costs £99.99 and works for 350+ breeds, types, and varieties it also tests for 25+ genetic conditions, 35+ breed traits, and much more.

The Essential DNA test @WisdomPanel offer for dogs costs £99.99 and works for 350+ breeds, types, and varieties it also tests for 25+ genetic conditions, 35+ breed traits, and much more
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Through DNA testing, we can map the ancestry or origin story of your dog, from their breed breakdown to family tree, going back several generations
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Knowing your dog’s breed mix or pure breed and their genetic makeup empowers you to tailor training, nutrition, and care to their unique needs—helping you ensure a happier, healthier, snugglier pup for years to come. If you are a dog lover the information this test reveals is really valuable in caring for them.

The analysis of health conditions they show markers for is key to planning their medical care with your vet going forwards. For example, if they show a strong marker for hip dysplasia this can help you manage their exercise to mitigate the degeneration and to watch out for early signs of the disease and take early steps against it with supplements or drugs.

If the @WisdomPanel results show a strong marker for hip dysplasia this can help you manage their exercise to mitigate the degeneration and to watch out for early signs of the disease
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Results only took a couple of weeks and I was emailed a link to take me straight back to the online account where all my pets results were clearly laid out in categories with simply laid out results
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The test kits each have a unique ID number that you use to create an account for you and your pet online. Instructions for the procedure are clear and well laid out online, the interface really is well designed, and taking the DNA sample itself was easy peasy! I just roughly rubbed the small bristly brush inside the dog’s cheek, popped it back in the supplied tube and sent it back to Wisdom in the prepaid package. Simplicity itself. Results only took a couple of weeks and I was emailed a link to take me straight back to the online account where all my pets results were clearly laid out in categories with simply laid out results.

I was very happy to find that all three of my dogs were indeed 100% purebred and had zero health issues commonly associated with poorly managed breeding programs. All-round I was very impressed with Wisdom’s testing kits and services. From start to finish the process was well explained and simple to use, plus the prices are very reasonable. The Essential Dog DNA Collection Kit costs just £99.99 and includes everything I have discussed above and a Premium Kit costs $159.99.

Our algorithm considers over 17 million possible family trees that could have produced your dog’s raw genetic results. Looking at all of the trees together, the algorithm then determines the most likely breed breakdown and family tree for your pup.

I was particularly pleased to see the information they supplied on fur color as all my dogs are red. This was no mean feat and we had to shop all around the UK to find puppies that carried this rare gene
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Once your pup’s sample reaches our lab we log its arrival, and extract and purify the DNA from the sample that you collected. The DNA is then processed on our proprietary Illumina® Infinium® XT microarray, which tests for approximately 100,000 variants across your dog’s genome. Variants are places in the DNA that can vary between dogs, and the process of determining which particular variants a dog has is called genotyping. We then take your dog’s variant data and compare it to the largest dog reference database in the world: with over 350 breeds, types, and varieties built from a library of more than 1 million dogs.

I was particularly pleased to see the information they supplied on fur color as all my dogs are red. This was no mean feat and we had to shop all around the UK to find puppies that carried this rare gene. I have a soft spot for red animals so watch out all Highland cattle!

Breed info was also good and covered traits as well as a little on the history of the breed. Difficult to read but a wonderful outcome!

From start to finish the process was well explained and simple to use, the kits are easy to use, the website is excellent plus the prices are very reasonable
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In 17th century England, bull baiting fortunately declined in popularity. Sadly, however, a new ugly sport rose up to take its place. As dogfights became increasingly common, there was a real need for a smaller and more agile fighter. This new dog would be a better contestant than the larger bulldog and mastiff. Bulldogs were bred to reduce their size and, over time, they were also crossed with the Black and Tan Terrier, resulting in the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Eventually, dog fighting was outlawed in 1835 and these devoted and loyal dogs were free to become home pets. From ugly beginnings … to a beautiful breed we’re glad are here today.

From start to finish the process was well explained and simple to use, the kits are easy to use, the website is excellent plus the prices are very reasonable. The Essential Dog DNA Collection Kit costs just £99.99 and includes everything I have discussed above. Also available is a Premium Kit for $159.99.

Olive Smart Ear

Our world is a loud place and I for one have lost some hearing in one ear due to being a stupid kid in a loud metal band. Whether your hearing loss is your own fault (hem hem) or not it can be an expensive and tedious problem to address with old fashioned hearing aids costing a fortune and often being overkill for the issue you have. Oh, and they tend to look like fleshy pink monstrosities, a bit like the alien Ceti Eel that crawls into Chekov’s ear in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, I might be exaggerating but it is not a good look.

We all hate to admit when we need help, especially men, but that’s what Olive Smart Ear is for. It’s a stylish single-ear hearing amplifier that re-engineers hearing for better conversations and enhanced listening. Be honest, we’ve all experienced it: the “What did you say?” from Dad at a noisy restaurant, the “Can you speak up?” from Grandpa during FaceTime calls, and the notorious remote control stealing so the TV can be on max volume.

We all hate to admit when we need help, especially men, but that’s what @olive_union is for. It’s a stylish single-ear hearing amplifier that re-engineers hearing for better conversations and enhanced listening
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The @olive_union Smart Ear uses AI to capture 99.8% of the sounds within your hearing range without distortion while dampening unwanted background noises
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Olive Smart Ear uses AI to capture 99.8% of the sounds within your hearing range without distortion while dampening unwanted background noises. Not only is it a modern and cool looking gadget, but it was also the CES 2020 “Best Wearable” award winner! The Smart Ear is a next-gen hearable for anyone with mild to moderate hearing loss and ensures they’ll never need to ask someone to speak up, turn the volume up, or be told they are shouting again (what if I like shouting?).

The Olive Smart Ear isolates, filters, and reduces distracting background noises, and amplifies the ones that matter most, optimizing the experience of everyday listening. Designed to enhance the surrounding audio for those with mild-to-moderate hearing loss (less than 50 dB) but who aren’t yet ready for hearing aids – either clinically or emotionally.

Setting up the new Smart ear was a piece of cake and after a quick charge in its handy little USB charging dock, I downloaded the app to my phone, connected through Bluetooth, and was up and running fast. When you first activate it the Smart Ear performs a simple hearing test to personalize your device. Check out the video below for a demo of how simple set up is.

I downloaded the @olive_union app to my phone, connected through Bluetooth, and was up and running fast
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There is a simple Feedback Cancelation setting and a Volume slider. There is also an Equalizer so you can further personalize your settings and get the sound just the way you like
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Through their app it is super easy to control your Smart Ear with three simple modes that cover general listening situations; Default, Conversation & TV Mode. There is a simple Feedback Cancelation setting and a Volume slider. There is also an Equalizer so you can further personalize your settings and get the sound just the way you like.

Using the @olive_union Smart Ear definitely helped in crowded rooms, pulling the voice of the speaker out to the front and stopping me struggling to engage with the conversation
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I don’t have a problem hearing the TV as I’m usually in a quiet room anyway but the Conversation mode was a real help when chatting in a group in a loud room. Generally, I have an issue focusing on the speaker’s voice in crowded settings and often struggle to get more than the gist as background noise blurs together with the voice. Using the Smart Ear definitely helped in this specific situation, pulling the voice of the speaker out to the front and stopping me struggling to engage with the conversation.

Key Features:

• Personalized sound with simple hearing calibration: Provides users with an easy-to-use, 5-minute hearing test via smartphone with the included Olive Smart App (Android and Apple compatible) to customize audio and equalizer frequency settings, personalized to their own hearing profile.
• Designed to be seen not hidden: Eliminates any hearing impairment stigmas through modern design cues, borrowed from popular truly wireless earbuds that everyone is wearing.
• User-Friendly sound modes with feedback cancellation: Captures sounds you never realized were missing and avoid turning up TV volumes with preset “TV Listening” and “Conversation” modes. Three onboard mics capture high-frequency sounds while minimizing feedback for a clear, spectrally balanced sound.

With its simple and easy to use partner app on your smartphone, the personalization possible and the long-lasting battery the Smart Ear is a tantalizing option for those with low to mid-level hearing loss. Add to this the low price and help with hearing loss is now available to many more people for whom the old fashioned solutions large medical companies offer are out of reach. To be honest, the tech on offer from Olive is the same or better than many high-cost alternatives, and damn it looks so much better.

Help with hearing loss is now available to many more people for whom the old fashioned solutions large medical companies offer are out of reach
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The @olive_union Smart Ear is effective, small and modern looking and would easily be mistaken for any high-end Bluetooth earbud, which is exactly what it is
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• Performance: 16 channels / 16 bands Feedback Cancellation + Active noise reduction & Personal hearing settings Equalizer.
  FRR 200Hz〜6,704Hz
  Maximum sound pressure level　122.8dB＋3dB
  Average sound pressure level　116.5dB±3dB
  Maximum sound level
  48.0dB±3dB
  Average sound level
  40.3dB±3dB
• Power & Battery: Lithium-ion batteries with 7 hours + Charging dock: 14 hours
• Compatibility: Olive App & Firmware + Android & iOS smartphone
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2 Low Energy + Enhanced data rate（EDR）

The Smart Ear is effective, small and modern looking and would easily be mistaken for a high-end Bluetooth earbud similar to many of those I have reviewed here previously. With an MSRP of $299 USD the Smart Ear is available from QVC & B8ta, or you can pick one up direct from Olive Union here for a limited time discount price of $229.

Tom Atkinson is Reviews & Dep. Editor at Tech Trends. Follow him on Twitter @techtrends_tech

The post July 2020 Product Reviews appeared first on Tech Trends.

I love covering this industry, the pace of innovation is awesome, and watching companies large and small vie for market share with powerful and revolutionary tech is inspiring. We have come a long way. Better, lighter, untethered HMDs: Check. Cheaper, easier to use VR solutions: Check. Better access to good VR content: Check (mostly).

And now we have high-resolution VR with hand and eye-tracking which is an important step towards breaking down a barrier that has been holding VR back from broader adoption in some industries. Low-resolution VR might be fine for games and low interaction immersion, but when you are training for one of the most complicated and dangerous missions mankind has ever faced, every detail matters.

Low res VR might be fine for games and low interaction immersion, but when you are training for one of the most complicated and dangerous missions mankind has ever faced @BoeingSpace know every detail matters
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The latest HMD launched by Finnish company Varjo steps into that gap by offering industrial-grade “human-eye resolution” plus hand and eye-tracking. The company has just announced a new partnership with Boeing on a VR training program using its new VR-2 Pro headset for astronauts on the Boeing Starliner program preparing for missions to the International Space Station.

The VR-2 Pro is the latest professional iteration of Varjo’s initial VR-1 model and after extensive development with partner pilot companies including Audi, Volkswagen, and Saab, it features improved Ultraleap hand tracking and 20/20 Eye Tracker tech as well as easy integration with affordable SteamVR content and peripherals as well as the OpenVR development platform from Valve.

“We are proud to be delivering the technology that is pushing industrial training applications to their furthest reaches – even to space,” said Niko Eiden, CEO and co-founder of Varjo. “With our devices, astronauts can see and virtually interact with the switches and control panels inside their Starliner capsule and read the real-time data on their crew displays. Advancements like this have the potential to transform the way any pilot is trained.”

The Boeing Starliner has been developed in partnership with NASA and when the first crewed mission aboard the CST-100 Starliner takes place in 2021, the crew will have banked hundreds of training hours for each phase of the entire mission – including launching, docking, re-entering the atmosphere and landing phases – using Varjo’s human-eye resolution VR devices. Chris Ferguson, the company’s first corporate astronaut, and Starliner commander will soon start using the Varjo VR training system regularly in preparation for the program’s Crew Flight Test, which will be the first Starliner mission with humans on board.

When the first crewed mission aboard the @BoeingSpace CST-100 Starliner takes place in 2021, the crew will have banked hundreds of training hours using @varjodotcom human-eye resolution VR devices
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For the VR training to be effective, astronauts need to be able to read all the displays simultaneously while operating the simulated aircraft with their hands or controllers
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Imagine approaching the ISS in the Starliner spacecraft. Your speed is relatively low, but the ISS weighs about 420,000 kilograms. That’s the equivalent of more than 330 cars. And even though the ISS is weightless in space, it still has mass. And the spacecraft needs to be steered to a fine point at the docking port by following a cone-shaped path. Projecting the display panels and trajectory data precisely is crucial if VR is to be an effective training tool for such a vital operation.

I‘ve recently managed to get some hands-on time with a VR-2 Pro test unit and seen for myself what a huge difference Varjo’s high visual fidelity makes when interacting with control panels and virtual objects. It’s easy to see how this seemingly simple advancement – namely the ability to read text, displays, and buttons as you would in real-life – is crucial in making it possible to train for dangerous and precise procedures such as docking a space ship from inside a complex cockpit.

The spacecraft’s crew console consists of two displays, each about the size of an iPad, which shows mission-critical flight data such as the velocity and trajectory of the aircraft as it moves in space. For the VR training to be effective, astronauts need to be able to read all the displays simultaneously while operating the simulated aircraft with their hands or controllers. With earlier VR headsets, reading the displays in the immersive training environment was only possible when leaning in very close to the displays – but then the astronauts couldn’t see their hands, making it unsuitable for training.

With earlier VR headsets, reading the displays in the immersive training environment was only possible when leaning in very close to the displays but then the astronauts couldn’t see their hands, making it unsuitable for training
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The most important psychological effect of this human-eye resolution, however, is ‘full immersion’ by which I mean how real-life levels of detail better convince the brain it is operating in a real-world situation so that your brain is not wasting any effort suspending disbelief.

It stands to reason that full immersion like this should vastly increase the effectiveness of group practice for unplanned events and working together in simulated dangerous situations, while building the team’s responses and decision-making abilities, without ever putting the astronauts in danger. The Starliner team can thus perform all the routine interactions, voice, and switch commands, while being immersed in the same surroundings they’d see when sitting in the actual spacecraft.

The Varjo VR-2 is the only device to deliver immersive content in pixel-perfect clarity. This allows training for even the most challenging and safety-critical procedures of spaceflight, such as docking to the International Space Station, to be conducted in virtual reality. Further, the system extends the astronaut training program by enabling training through the two week-quarantine period in crew quarters before launch.

The most important effect is ‘full immersion’ by which I mean how real-life levels of detail better convince the brain it is operating in a real-world situation so that your brain is not wasting effort suspending disbelief
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The Varjo VR-2 Pro is the only device to deliver immersive content in pixel-perfect clarity allowing training for the safety-critical procedures of spaceflight, such as docking to the @Space_Station, to be conducted in VR
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Before I dive into my experience of using the headset, let’s look at the device specs for the VR-2 Pro. The HMD features a next-generation Bionic Display with resolution at over 20/20 vision (over 60 PPD / 3000 PPI), flicker-free screen refresh at 60/90 Hz. Combining two 1920 x 1080 low persistence micro-OLEDs and two 1440 x 1600 low persistence AMOLEDs.

Basically this means that each eyepiece uses two screens, one higher resolution in the center and one that covers the peripheral vision. The two are cunningly blended digitally with foveated rendering and optically transmitted through the carefully engineered glass lens in the headset. These combined optics feature a contrast ratio of (over 10,000:1) enabling the deepest blacks and individually calibrated colors, for outstanding accuracy and image quality across an 87-degree field of view. The lens design combines different refractive index lenses for minimal color aberrations, zero ghost rays, and minimal reflections and each surface coating has been designed to maximize the brightness and clarity of the light needed to achieve human-eye resolution.

The real power of the Varjio solution, however, is released when this amazing image quality is combined with their advanced stereo 20/20 Eye Tracker and the integrated Ultraleap hand tracking. Eye-tracking is now faster and more accurate with automatic user calibration – industrial-grade, sub-degree accuracy plus integrated 100hz stereo eye-tracking delivering unmatched accuracy and precision. The hand tracking technology in the VR-2 Pro is especially impactful for interacting with physical controllers and switches as part of their VR training but also makes VR navigation and freehand tasks easy, all together delivering a very natural and intuitive immersive experience.

The real power of the @varjodotcom solution is released when this amazing image quality is combined with their advanced stereo 20x20 Eye Tracker and the integrated @ultraleap hand tracking
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I tried out several demos which were impressive in very different ways and served to highlight various aspects and potential use cases for the tech. And perhaps surprisingly, the sheer impact of the VR-2 Pro’s resolution came across best in some of the most mundane settings. I was able to walk up and down a supermarket aisle checking out the products on the shelves, their prices, and label information while the eye-tracking monitored where my gaze was resting, highlighting which products I was actually examining at any given time.

I was blown away by how immersive that experience felt, perhaps because the setting was so familiar and relatable, as well as so beautifully reconstructed in VR. I could read every brand label and price tag from center aisle and as I approached the shelves it really felt like I could “reach out and touch” the various items level of reality. Tins, packets, and bottles of the familiar products were so crisp and well-lit I was staggered. Somehow even more impressive than this was the rendering of the shelves themselves and the packing crates the sugar was stacked on. The lighting, shadows and textures were so well rendered I spent quite a while pacing up and down just exclaiming “wow.”

The intuitiveness of the interface made the experience feel natural and much more immersive, as if you weren’t in VR at all, leaving you free to concentrate and learn the tasks at hand
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The next demo I tried was set in an airport control tower, where eye and hand tracking played a crucial role. Standing in a control tower you could look around the control center and out through the 360 windows while planes taxied around, took off and landed. Once your eye settled on a plane, terminal or control surface relevant info popped up and control interactions became possible through pinching your fingers. I could look at the computer screen and bring up the weather report, look at a taxiing plane and bring up its flight number and info. I could reach out to switch between feeds on the security monitor and identify parts of the terminal building and related information. The intuitiveness of the interface made the experience feel natural and much more immersive, as if you weren’t in VR at all, leaving you free to concentrate and learn the tasks at hand.

“Being able to see in high fidelity and interact without controllers revolutionizes professional VR. Varjo’s human-eye resolution visual fidelity is unprecedented. So is the accuracy and low latency of Ultraleap’s hand tracking. explained Steve Cliffe, CEO of Ultraleap, “The Varjo VR-2 Pro is the best integration of the two technologies and sets a new standard for natural user experience in VR. We’re very excited about the value it will unlock for demanding use-cases such as training, simulation and industrial design.”

I also got a taste of the astronaut training through a few airplane cockpit experiences, although they didn’t contain any interactive elements. The reason Boeing chose to work with Varjo on the Starliner training program became clear as the level of detail on the control panels was stunning. From a pilot’s seated position I could read every button’s tag and easily perceive the angle and position of flick switches. I could also clearly read the computer screens and the detailed flight info they displayed.

“We have seen first-hand what the power of human-eye resolution in VR can offer in terms of expanding the realm of applications for the enterprise,” said Urho Konttori, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Varjo. “Today we bring the Resolution Revolution overnight to nearly all industrial applications, unlocking the next level of professional VR. With VR-2 and VR-2 Pro, professionals can benefit from the industry’s highest visual fidelity and the most precise eye tracking joining forces with the leading hand tracking technology.”

Overall the quality of the tech was outstanding, also bearing in mind it was running off one Nvidia 2080 Ti GPU in a small but powerful micro PC. However, a few things stood out to me that are worth pointing out. The complex foveated rendering with the multiple screens and lenses was mostly unnoticeable while interacting in VR but when looking at static scenes I became much more aware of the separation between the crystal-clear center of my vision and the peripheral areas, the different resolutions displayed and the joins between these areas.

Today we bring the Resolution Revolution overnight to nearly all industrial applications, said @konttori Urho Konttori, Co Founder and Chief Product Officer of Varjo unlocking the next level of professional VR
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Building on Varjo’s advanced 20/20 Eye Tracker technology, the new products offer even faster and more accurate calibration performance, giving professionals access to precise eye data for applications such as consumer research or safety-critical training while delivering the most natural visual experience needed when designing cars, architectural projects, advanced simulations or research scenarios.

The effect was also noticeable when purposely pushing the boundaries of the eye-tracking but still small when you consider the amount of complex stuff going on and just like everything the next generation will be better. On the plus side, I experienced virtually no eye strain, even after a few hours of use and the HMD itself was cool and comfortable to use. Again considering the amount of tech packed into this headset it felt surprisingly light.

The reason @BoeingSpace chose to work with @varjodotcom on the VR-2 Starliner training program became clear as the level of detail on the astronaut control panels was stunning
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“The highest visual fidelity of Varjo’s HMDs enables a trainee to perform optimally within these safety-critical training simulations in VR. For instance, pilots are able to easily read all the gauges, dials, and switches in a virtual cockpit. With Varjo’s 20/20 Eye Tracker, we are able to accurately track and capture where trainees are looking, allowing us to measure and compare performance over time and across a student population. enthused Scott Schneider, CEO & Co-Founder of HTX Labs, “And with the VR-2’s built-in hand tracking technology, our users can train more naturally and effectively, removing the friction of controllers.”

The sheer improvement in resolution is amazing and enough to put the VR-2 Pro at the top of the list for any mission-critical use case. Yet the main significance of this technical accomplishment is how users will be more deeply immersed in the experience because their eyes and brains won’t be struggling to interpret a pixelated digital environment. The smooth and intuitive implementation of hand and eye tracking will also deepen the felt immersion and therefore improve the outcome for the user. Using both these technologies Varjo has delivered the most natural and intuitive VR UX I have yet experienced. If it looks real and feels real, our minds quite quickly accept that what we’re experiencing is real.

Hand and eye-tracking also deepen the felt immersion and improve the outcome for the user. Using both these technologies Varjo delivers the most natural and intuitive VR UX I have yet experienced
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If it looks real and feels real, our minds quite quickly accept that what we’re experiencing is real. The @varjodotcom VR-2 Pro is a game-changer
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The VR-2 and the VR-2 Pro are available for $4,995 and $5,995 respectively, sold together with Varjo’s software and support services starting at $795. Varjo truly is at the cutting edge of immersive technology and a company to keep an eye on as we all step into an augmented future.

This article originally appeared on VRScout.

The Varjo VR-2 Pro Boldly Goes Where No VR Headset Has Gone Before via @R3Digital https://t.co/fsrV8osRJL pic.twitter.com/X0FR4wKc5f

— VRScout (@VRScout) June 11, 2020

Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Tom Atkinson is Reviews & Dep. Editor at Tech Trends. Follow him on Twitter @techtrends_tech

The post Varjo VR-2 Pro – High Res VR appeared first on Tech Trends.

A recent infographic produced by London cybercrime specialists, EC-MSP, shows the full extent of the new cyber threats. With cyber-attacks and data breaches emerging as the world’s most expensive crimes, London businesses are well-advised to maximise their security levels.

Infographic by EC-MSP

The post Infographic: Is London the Hacking Capital of Europe? appeared first on Tech Trends.

Bett 2018 brought 850 leading EdTech companies, 103 new start-ups and over 34,700 attendees from 131 countries together at the ExCel London
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Last week Bett 2018 brought 850 leading EdTech companies, 103 new start-ups and over 34,700 attendees from 131 countries together at the ExCel London to celebrate education, find inspiration and discuss the role technology plays in enabling all educators and learners to thrive. Tech Trends hooked up with two key innovators, Microsoft Education and Dell EMC to see what that future looks like.

Dell asked 1000 British parents with children in primary and secondary education about their thoughts on how technology is used in schools
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I know that very little I was taught at school is of any practical use to me in my working life, and a new piece of research from Dell highlights parents’ concerns that their children aren’t being prepared for the technological future they face. Dell asked 1000 British parents with children in primary and secondary education about their thoughts on how technology is used in schools to teach their children and came up with some striking results.

• 93% of parents state that it’s vital for their child to have a positive experience with technology for their career and job prospects
• Despite 92% of parents believing schools need to offer lessons that develop their kids’ IT skills, more than a third (38%) report their kids have access to better technology at home than they do in class
• Other uses of IT parents would like to see include: data analysis for science subjects (31%) and the development of PowerPoints for class presentations (27%)

It’s essential that schools understand the importance of integrating technology into all aspects of student learning so that it doesn’t end up a siloed discipline targeted at those already interested in IT. Schools need to encourage students to engage with technology from a young age and develop core skills to prepare them for further education, giving them a head start in the world of work,” explained Richard Rawcliffe, Vice President, Public Sector, DellEMC UK and Ireland

Clearly, parents realise that the work environment has evolved hugely since they were at school. There is widespread acknowledgement that new skills need to be taught and new forms of tech-based learning developed to equip their children to succeed in the digital age. There are many tools that can help students along the way to gain them access to the jobs of the future: From coding kits to custom dissertation writing services, the classroom of today is vastly different from what it used to be for our parent’s generation, and that change will only continue to accelerate exponentially. Chatting with John Lyons, Dell’s Director of Marketing and Product Development at Dell Education it was clear that those parents are the driving force behind the implementation of new tech in US & UK classrooms.

A lot of parents decisions (on school selection) are based on, do you deploy student devices, what type of devices, can you teach with them or do you just hand them out? The hardest part for teachers is they are now walking into a teaching environment where they have students sitting there with their ChromeBooks and Windows devices and they’re not trained to actually deliver a curriculum based on that technology. So we have to engage our professional learning and services teams to help them and it’s not something you can teach over a weekend, it takes time.

Schools need to integrate technology into all aspects of student learning so that it doesn’t end up a siloed discipline targeted at those already interested in IT
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This makes sense as any new tech-based classroom and curriculum will need well-trained teachers to deliver it and we are not just talking about IT teachers; parents clearly want technology to be a learning tool in all subject areas.

• Over a quarter (26%) admitting they are concerned IT is primarily taught as a separate subject rather than being embedded into all lessons
• Just under half of the parents (48%) would like their kids to use technology to research all subjects
• 45% who would like IT used for every-day coursework
• 39% of parents stating they would like to see their children use technology within classes such as Coding Clubs

Teachers are now walking into a classroom where students are sitting there with their ChromeBooks and Windows devices, and they’re not trained to actually deliver a curriculum based on that technology
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Parents are clearly asking for a total revolution in education here, not just throwing a few more computers into classrooms, but fully embracing what technology can offer children and our society. They want to see the evolution of the curriculum and teaching methods to advance the very systems and processes of education as we understand it. After all, isn’t education supposed to give our children the skills they will need in their lives? As key suppliers of technology to schools Dell are very aware of the need to continue advancing their products and work closely with partners such a Microsoft to ensure they supply those classrooms with the tech they need.

Ultimately our goal is to allow children to use technology so that when they graduate from school they are equiped to deal with University, real life and the workplace. Explains John Lyons. Using History as a pilot for the future, an example of where technologies including AR and VR could integrate into a History lesson, to put them in the world of that History lesson, put them in the actual environment of the people they are studying, living it in a VR session. The challenge is we don’t know what the right configuration is going to look like for that, the software has not quite caught up. There are a lot of schools in the US that have pushed the one to one, take home devices for students but are now coming back to the in-class model using specialized devices for different subjects. It’s a really interesting model and we are trying to make sure we have the right devices for whatever their goals are going forwards.

The Microsoft stand at Bett 2018 was the largest in the cavernous ExCel hall and packed full of innovative education projects and technology but if we need an example of how to revolutionise education and embed technology in our schools then Microsoft’s Hacking STEM project was the best demonstration at the show this year. Hacking STEM is a partnership between the Education Workshop, Hack for Good and the Microsoft Garage and reinvents what K-12 lessons can be, proving EdTech is not just about glueing kids to screens but creatively merging technology with hands-on skills in practical lessons that blur the lines between traditional subjects and pull together many of a child’s abilities while encouraging collaboration.

Many schools in the US are now coming back to the in-class model using specialized devices for different subjects
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Hacking STEM was originally prototyped by the Education Workshop as a Hack For Good during Microsoft’s 2016 //Oneweek Hackathon. Designed to run on inexpensive Windows 10 laptops in the $300 range, it uses a ‘hacked’ version of Excel to bring to life the fundamentals of science and open the emerging world of IOT to the classroom and help teachers meet the NGSS and ISTE standards for data science.

Our goal is to support teachers building inquiry and project-based activities that embed computational and design thinking into existing middle school curriculum. We want to democratize STEM for learners and demonstrate how all schools can provide affordable opportunities to bring ‘making’ and 21st century technical skills to the classroom. Microsoft Education Workshop

Tech Trends tested out three innovative lesson demos that covered earthquake science and shake-proof architecture, robotics, building machines that emulate human anatomy and using the Pythagorean theorem to explore and measure topography in 2D/3D space. Yes, you read that right, but that is what these lessons prove, complex maths, science, technology and engineering can be taught in fun and accessible ways if we open our minds and adjust our preconceptions about how we teach and what kids are capable of. These lessons were truly inspiring and almost made me want to teach, almost. Hell, they made me want to learn!

Hacking STEM is designed to run on inexpensive Windows 10 laptops in the $300 range and uses a hacked version of Excel to bring to life the fundamentals of science
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On the Hacking STEM site, you will find bite-sized, hands-on, teacher-tested projects and activities that use everyday materials to make STEM affordable, accessible, and fun
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The Pythagorean lesson involves kids acting as environmental surveyors and engineers, they build measuring tools with cardboard or LEGO bricks to create and visualize an initial transportation plan for the development of an island national park in Excel. LEGO Education partnered with Microsoft, on this, supplying their Simple & Powered Machines Sets, out of which kids build the tools and 3D maps needed for the lesson. The goal is to build an efficient transportation plan that minimizes the environmental impact on the island. They then bring their National Park to life by adding topographic elements in Paint 3D which are then translated into Augmented Reality.

We can’t praise these incredible lessons enough, and strongly recommend you take a look, whether you are a teacher or just keen to get your kids more engaged with STEM at home. On the Hacking STEM site, you will find bite-sized, hands-on, teacher-tested projects and activities that use everyday materials to make STEM affordable, accessible, and fun. I had a blast with them and can only envy any child who is lucky enough to learn in a school that truly appreciates and embraces the possibilities demonstrated here.

Meanwhile, Dell, are also staying on the cutting edge of affordable technology with their new 5000 series Chromebooks, producing products that ensure schools can afford to provide children with the basic technology they need while looking forwards and developing solutions for kids to get involved with next generation of EdTech such as AR and VR immersive technologies.

The challenge, concludes Lyons, is that there is no standard set of applications schools use: “in AR and VR we are partnering heavilly with Microsoft, on both the hardware design and software design, Intel is also involved in that process. I think we are within a year at least of actually delivering this technology to the education market.”

These lessons prove that complex subjects can be taught in fun and accessible ways
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Dell’s new research suggests parents have the will and the power to influence the direction schools take in our technological future and these inspiring lessons will truly open your eyes to what is possible and how achievable it is. If politicians, state funding bodies and academic institutions can be won over by these concepts, it would be a huge step towards future-proofing our children’s education.

Dell’s new research suggests parents have the will and the power to influence the direction schools take in our technological future
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Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Education + Technology = The Future appeared first on Tech Trends.

Mixed Reality is increasingly being used to teach the creative and collaborative skills needed for the digital age.

As all major tech giants converge in London this week for BETT UK – arguably the biggest event in the EdTech calendar – many companies like Microsoft are keen to showcase how immersive technologies can be powerful aids to learning.

“Technology has the power to unlock limitless learning, and lesson plans that encourage hands-on and visual learning drive deeper engagement from students,” says Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. Studies show improved test performance and passion for learning among students who experience 3D content, girls in particular.

Many companies like Microsoft are keen to showcase how immersive technologies can be powerful aids to learning
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One tool which has proved extremely successful in doing so has been Minecraft: Education Edition, which is used in classrooms in more than 115 countries. This spring, a free Chemistry Update will enable teachers to use Minecraft to engage students of all ages in chemistry through hands-on experimentation. Students will be able to leverage the game-based learning with which pupils are already familiar with to build compounds and tackle complex topics like stable isotopes in a highly visual way.

One tool which has proved extremely successful in doing so has been Minecraft: Education Edition, which is used in classrooms in more than 115 countries
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“Our research shows the most effective learning involves multiple regions of the brain. In the era of mixed reality – which includes augmented and virtual reality – we are working with our partners to deliver products and experiences that will help teachers push the boundaries of their curricula,” says Mehdi.

It is no secret that Microsoft believes that Mixed Reality represents the next computing revolution, and Anthony Salcito – Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft – confirms that in addition to a new features and hardware releases aimed at the education market, they are looking to significantly expand their Mixed Reality curriculum offerings through strategic content partnerships.

Microsoft is looking to significantly expand its Mixed Reality curriculum offerings through strategic content partnerships
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Pearson will begin rolling out curriculum that will work on both HoloLens and Windows Mixed Reality immersive VR headsets
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Among those is a project with PBS and NASA’s “Bringing the Universe to America’s Classrooms” and Oceans: Our Blue Planet – a collaboration between Microsoft Education and BBC Earth that will launch in the Spring to explore ways to bring the BBC’s content to life in classrooms and museums across the world.

Pearson the world’s largest education company – will also begin rolling out in March curriculum that will work on both HoloLens and Windows Mixed Reality immersive VR headsets. These six new applications will deliver seamless experiences across devices and further illustrate the value of getting hands-on with technology immersive educational experiences, teaching everything from anatomy to math.

Students build tools with LEGO bricks from the Simple & Powered Machines set or cardboard to create and visualize an initial transportation plan for the development of an island National Park in Excel
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Together with LEGO Education, Microsoft’s Hacking STEM program (already used by educators in over 75 countries worldwide) will also offer schools a new, free online lesson plan where students use the Pythagorean Theorem to explore and measure topography in 2D/3D space. They will be offering a new free online Hacking STEM lesson plan that has students use the Pythagorean Theorem to explore and measure topography in 2D/3D space.  Acting as environmental surveyors and engineers, students build tools with LEGO bricks from the Simple & Powered Machines set or cardboard to create and visualize an initial transportation plan for the development of an island National Park in Excel. They can then bring their National Park to life by adding topographic elements.

LEGO Education and Microsoft’s Hacking STEM program will use the Pythagorean Theorem to explore and measure topography in 2D/3D space
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Until May 31st 2018, qualified academic institutions will be able to purchase discounted Commercial and Developer HoloLens units at 10% off
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Mehdi says that over the last year Microsoft has seen remarkable instances of teachers and institutions using Microsoft HoloLens to bring 3D experiences to life in the classroom. To keep up with growing demand for HoloLens in the classroom they have also announced that they will be making a limited-time academic pricing offer available for HoloLens. Until May 31st 2018, qualified academic institutions will be able to purchase discounted Commercial and Developer HoloLens units at 10% off in select markets where HoloLens currently ships. Additionally, they hope that the release of the Windows Mixed Reality immersive VR headsets at a lower $299 price point will also help to build up the momentum for take-up of MR technology in the classroom.

Creativity is predicted to be one of the top three most desired skills by employers in 2020
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According to Futuresource, the worldwide education market grew 15 percent year-over-year, yet although Microsoft is certainly staking its claim on that market, it also has a significant Philanthropic Commitment to Education, donating over $1.2 billion in software and services to more than 90,000 nonprofit organizations around the world in 2017.

According to Futuresource, the worldwide education market grew 15 percent year-over-year
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With nine out of ten teachers seeing creativity as central to future careers and 93 percent of students view technology as key, the two clearly go hand-in-hand
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Creativity is predicted to be one of the top three most desired skills by employers in 2020. With nine out of ten teachers seeing creativity as central to future careers and 93 percent of students view technology as key, the two clearly go hand-in-hand, and it is increasingly becoming clear that immersive technologies are going to be the glue that binds those two trends together.

#Immersive learning transforming #education – https://t.co/dE0JZhEKLj @alicebonasio @CIOonline @IDGCN

— IDG Contributor Network (@IDGCN) January 23, 2018

This article was originally published on IDG Connect

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with immersive technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post How Mixed Reality is Transforming Learning appeared first on Tech Trends.

Technology is a big part of modern scientific exploration, as one IT expert found out when he embarked on the adventure of a lifetime.

Carles Pina i Estany is not what comes to mind when you picture your typical Polar explorer. A native from sunny Barcelona, he works as a Software Engineer at Mendeley – a London-based technology company owned by science publishers Elsevier – and before this year, he had never even slept aboard a ship. Nevertheless, when the invitation came for him to embark on a 3-month expedition around the Antarctic, he jumped at the chance.

Carles might not be your typical polar explorer, but he played a key part in the trip
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It all happened rather quickly; his partner Jen Thomas – who had previously worked with the British Antarctic Survey – was engaged as Data Manager for a research trip led by the newly created Swiss Polar Institute which was sponsored by the billionaire adventurer Frederik Paulsen.

The Akademik Tryoshnikov research vessel undertook an ambitious Antarctic loop
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Having an IT person on board (in addition to the two maintenance and electronics engineers) was essential and so Carles found himself alongside Jen on board the Akademik Tryoshnikov research vessel undertaking an ambitious Antarctic loop via Cape Town in South Africa, Hobart in Tasmania and Punta Arenas in Chile.

Having an IT person on board is essential these days
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This was about the time when things started to go wrong, as he recalls. They had bad weather, the food was poor, and the telecommunications setup didn’t work properly. And while some troubleshooting is to be expected on any such trip, the fact that they’d had such little time to prepare the equipment before setting off presented Carles with a unique set of challenges, or – as he optimistically puts it – “more opportunities for me to solve things.”

“I am 35 now, and I have been working with computers for over 20 years – hack days, evenings, weekends, personal projects – I tell you, in this expedition I used everything I know, even little bits of knowledge I thought were pretty useless, it all becomes useful in the Antarctic!”

When Pina i Estany’s unusual office time wrapped up this summer and he returned to London in late July, he found time to meet with Ars and regale our inner networking nerd with tales of IT at the high seas. If there’s anything to take away from his experiences, it’s that tech support in the most extreme places in the world isn’t so different from tech support in more familiar settings—that is, except for the lack of reliable connectivity and ability to snag parts and equipment from Amazon or your local shop. But the need for help is constant, the emotions can run high, and requests run the gamut from simple e-mail server stuff to things no computer science curriculum will train you for.

The winch

One evening, about a month after setting sail, a researcher cheerfully approached Pina i Estany with what he called a “new challenge.” Up until then, he dealt with the sort of familiar equipment that was well within his comfort zone: computers, routers, hard drives, and Raspberry Pis.

But this support ticket fell into an entirely different league. A massive winch—which is a hauling mechanism made of a cable and a crank—had started to fail.

Until this point, Pina i Estany didn’t even know what the word “winch” meant (that was about to change, naturally). This particular winch was responsible for lowering the ship’s only CTD device, which collected and analyzed water. The CTD normally would be lowered to depths of up to 1,500 meters, and it proved crucial to most of the 22 separate research teams onboard.

The problem, as it turned out, was a software malfunction. And the error was interfering with the winch’s ability to lower the extensive cabling into the water smoothly. Pina i Estany attempted some debugging, but the manufacturer soon told him that inputting new parameters on the CTD winch computer remotely was impossible. Considering the Akademik Tryoshnikov was in the middle of the ocean, this presented a bit of a problem.

The solution, as it turned out, called for some “semi-hacking skills” in addition to willingness to brave the elements:

“The temperature was around 0 or -2, windy with lots of sea spray; the boat was rocking, and my hands were freezing. People were asking me what I was doing out there with a computer, but the CTD was connected with a very short network cable. So I had to work outside,” he tells me. “So I accessed the winch computer, which operated Windows CE, using my Linux machine. I discovered the IP from the boot screen; using nmap, I found that it had a remote desktop server. I had a moment of joy when I pressed enter and, Yes! I could change the parameters.”

Pina i Estany’s joy was short-lived, sadly; that didn’t quite solve the problem. After the winch manufacturers begrudgingly agreed to let him reinstall the software, he had to wait until they docked at Hobart for resupply in order to download it through the hotel’s Wi-Fi.

“So we reinstalled the software, and it still wouldn’t boot up,” Pina i Estany said. “That was one of the worst moments of the expedition IT-wise. The problem was that the CTD was one of the most essential bits of science equipment onboard, but you know, this is a big winch, and I really had no idea about it… ”

Luckily, this particular story had a happy ending. After reinstalling the update in a different way, the winch finally stopped acting up. Soon enough, all the scientists got their water samples safely collected, and Pina i Estany could finally take his computer back out of the cold.

Hacked networking

In another memorable help request, one day a scientist approached Pina i Estany with a machine she used to measure the reflection of light on the sea. She needed to retrieve data from the device but could only do that by connecting it to a remote access point.

“So I was like, ‘yeah, no problem, where’s the router?’” he recalled. “It wasn’t on the ship at all—it turned out to be somewhere in Australia.”

The extremes of this Cape Town to Punta Arenas loop are easily 6,500-miles-plus away from Australia, and Pina i Estany recalls being roughly 2,000 miles away from South Africa at this time. Not that this stopped him, of course, as he used his laptop as a remote access point to connect to the equipment’s FTP server to get the data. “But that was a bit of a faff, since every time they needed more data, they had to get me and my computer,” he said.

Instead, Pina i Estany looked to a simple yet favorite device for network hackers—a smartphone.

“I figured out a way to hack together a network for her by using an Android phone,” he explains. “With Android, you can set up a hotspot, even with no signal, so the device can connect to their own laptop via this phone. That way, the scientists could retrieve their data whenever they wanted without me getting involved.”

Mail system

Try and cast your mind back—if you’re old enough—to the days of dial-up. You’d spend eons watching that progress bar as it downloaded a single e-mail or page. What was annoying back then is now maddening for those habituated to modern broadband speeds. But when you have a lot of people relying on an unreliable satellite Internet connection for sending and receiving all their e-mails, it’s a recipe for disaster. Things can quickly become tense.

“I have never seen so many people hitting their computers,” recalls Pina i Estany. “It was very painful for me. I can’t stand watching a scientist standing in front of a computer waiting for things to happen. It breaks my heart, seriously.”

Apart from the widespread frustration, a mounting e-mail backlog meant they couldn’t access some crucial expedition permits and documents. At one point, about 100MB of e-mails were stuck in the system, so Pina i Estany set out to retrieve them.

“It would have been easier to sail back to port to get them than to retrieve them at sea via Outlook,” he explains.

Of course, that kind of rerouting wasn’t an option. Instead, Pina i Estany accessed a remote server, downloaded and compressed all the e-mails to it, and then sent those compressed files to the ship using a piece of software called Rsync, which deals very well with unstable connections. He also wrote a script that meant if the program stopped downloading at any point, it would start again from the same place once a connection was re-established.

“So I left this program running for eight or nine hours and then opened this huge file using Thunderbird,” he said. “With that, I was able to get all the wanted e-mails, including the permits we needed.”

Still, the quick fix didn’t provide a solution to the main problem—the ship may have had these e-mails, but the expedition didn’t have a reliable communications system.

“I knew how to fix this, but I needed a proper Internet connection for a few hours to do it,” Pina i Estany said. “During our three-day break in port after leg one, Jen and I went to a hotel, where I set up a new website domain and webmail server, then created users for everyone. It was very popular. Everywhere I went on the ship, people were using the webmail I had deployed. That was amazing to see.”

For things to continue to run smoothly, however, Pina i Estany needed to limit the size of e-mails that could be sent over this system to 200kb, which meant setting up an alternative solution for sending larger files.

“I designed a system where the e-mails were downloaded in chunks,” he recalled. “It was a bit of a hack since e-mail protocols generally do not allow e-mails to be split—they download it all or not. I got around that so that if the download timed out at 20 percent, it tried again to download the rest of the e-mail rather than starting from zero.”

Pina i Estany also managed a queuing system to deal with the slow connection. With this in place, even though it might take five or 10 minutes for someone to retrieve their e-mail, users got a confirmation message straight away and knew that things were in hand.

“I was obsessed with being fair, so I was downloading e-mails in the order they were received,” he said.

The ferry box

Pina i Estany’s final anecdote involved something virtually every IT pro deals with these days: data management. Managing the vast amounts of data the expedition collected in real time was probably the most consistent (and huge) challenge that he applied his IT skills to, and the best example of this was the Ferry Box. This Linux-based machine remained in regular use, constantly measuring properties such as salinity and temperature of the water from the sea’s surface.

Because it took several days for each batch of collected data to be made available, however, scientists were left with little scope for forward planning. For stretches of time, the researchers could initially be unaware of important happenings, like crossing into different water bodies with distinctly different characteristics.

“So [to solve this], I figured out a way to feed that data into a website that the scientists could access in real time,” Pina i Estany said. “That way, they could make timely decisions about where to stop and take samples, for example.”

This functionality effectively meant that the researchers could shift from a reactive to a proactive approach in data collection. It’s not difficult to see how that would impact the science itself. And after a few tales from Pina i Estany, it’s not difficult to see how even the most extreme science relies on a humble IT pro, either.

This article was originally published on Ars Technica

Tales of an IT professional sailing around the Antarctic loop https://t.co/k7VyECE1wb

— Ars Technica (@arstechnica) August 22, 2017

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Hacking the Antarctic appeared first on Tech Trends.

Ransomware is where hackers hold your data hostage for payment
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We all know that cyber crime and so-called Ransomware (where hackers basically hold your data hostage until you pay them to release it back to you) is bad news, but what is it and how does this latest wave differ from what we’ve seen before?

Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra Networks, says there are clear parallels with previous attacks, and points to the fact that organisations need to be much more on top of their game where it comes to reinforcing up their cyber security provisions and patching up vulnerabilities that leave them open to such attacks.

“Petya is a wormlike spreading is similar to WannaCry and Conficker and causes detections for reconnaissance and lateral movements in our AI software. We expected WannaCry to cause organisations to patch their Windows systems that have the SMB vulnerability so I am dumbfounded that this is even working. This is a prime example of needing to patch vulnerabilities when discovered. It’s affected computers in the exact same way that WannaCry did and this attack tells us who the true laggards are when it comes to patching systems.”

This latest attack has so far affected major organisations in Ukraine, Russia, Denmark, France, the UK, the US, Spain and the Netherlands
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Presented by Vectra.ai

This is a prime example of needing to patch vulnerabilities
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The question then becomes: What can we do to protect ourselves against future attacks? The bad news is that there is no silver bullet, says Morales.

“Any security vendor saying they could completely protect an enterprise from this form of attack isn’t being honest, because the attacker just needs to succeed once and the attack surface is too large. By adding worm-like spreading to PetWrap, the attacker has created a pyramid scheme that encrypts the boot record of the computer, not just the files, which makes this attack far more fatal.

The NSA designed these tools to specifically bypass security solutions
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By the time you find one infected machine, you can assume dozens more have been infected, turning this into a light-speed game of whack-a-mole from a security perspective. The NSA designed these tools to specifically bypass existing security solutions, so it’s no surprise that the industry will be playing catch up for the next several months.”

The industry will continue playing catch-up with the hackers
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Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

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