What is the software version?
Although COBRA is technically hardware, each COBRA product (18R, 18R2, 18M) has a small computer which contains software. As usability and feature enhancements are performed to each unit, COBRA releases new software versions. This is one of the benefits of COBRA as most systems never improve where COBRA does.
How can I tell what software version my system is running?
When you turn on a COBRA product (18R, 18R2, 18M), the first information displayed is the software version. For example, 1.4.5, 1.4.6, 2.0.0, etc... The higher the number, the more recent the software.
How can I upgrade my systems to the latest software?
COBRA provides two options for upgrading software.
Option 1: Ship your systems to COBRA headquarters. Once received, COBRA will perform the software upgrade for free. You are only required to pay for shipping both ways.
Option 2: Purchase a wireless software re-programmer. Using this device, you can upgrade the software on your own. All you need is a PC, no disassembly of the units is required to perform the upgrade, everything is 100% wireless.
In order to perform a software upgrade, you'll need to install the Synapse Portal software on your PC.
COBRA is in the final stages of releasing a new 4.0 beta firmware (formerly 3.1). This version is not yet released. We thank everyone for their patience as we are committed to the highest level of quality and time to do things right.
The new release will include a handful of new features including the following:
Deadman button - The optional script confirmation button has changed to a "deadman" button. Specifying this arugment will require the deadman button to be pressed to fire the show. Releasing the button temporarily stops the show until re-pressed and held. A hand-held hardware version will be released in a later phase.
Multiple audio files - Define a different audio file for each script. This does not remove the 2 channel limit for any script beyond the 1st, however it sets the stage for the removal of this limit. In addition, this feature can support SPFX sound bytes where a small audio sample is pressed for mini-script effects.
Adjusted battery level range and warning - The 18M battery level ranges have been adjusted to more accurately represent the life of the battery. These changes will represent a 30% increase in battery life. In addition, the low battery warning will now trigger at 1P2 vs. 1P3. Both these changes will provide a more accurate and longer representation of operational battery life on the 18M module.
Low signal warning - If an 18M has a low signal (beyond -70), the 18R2 will proactively warn the operator. In addition to the 18M address, the signal level and 18M channel will display. For example, "Lo", "Ant", "-75", "A01", "C02". This allows the operator to know the exact module address, channel and associated signal level.
Channel and battery level displayed for low battery warning - In addition to displaying the 18M address, the low battery level warning will display the 18M channel. This allows for easier identification of an 18M in the field.
Low battery level warning - The low 18M battery level warning now displays the actual 1P value vs. a simple "Lo" warning. For example, "Lo", "bAt", "P3", "A01", "C02". This allows the operator to know the exact module address, channel and associated battery level. With the battery level (P0-P3) displayed, the user can now determine whether a battery change is required.
18R2 default channel now c00 - The 18R2 default channel is now c00. This was changed from c01.
Force unsync functionality removed from 18M - The force unsync functionality has been removed from the 18M. Previously, a user would force unsync the 18M from the synced remote by holding the SYNC button for 15+ seconds. This was causing users to inadvertantly force unsync their 18M modules. This functionality was removed.
Force unsync time extended from 15 to 30 seconds on 18R and 18R2 - The force unsync time has been extended from 15 seconds to 30 seconds on the 18R2. Previously, a user would hold the SYNC button for 15+ seconds to force unsync the 18R or 18R2 from all modules. This was causing users to inadvertantly force unsync their 18M modules. This functionality was kept, but the 15 second time-frame was extended to 30+ seconds.
Disable firing button - An optional "disable firing" button was added to the script header. You can specify a button 1-18. If pressed while a script is running, all 18M modules will disable firing, but the script will continue. By pressing the disable firing button again, the 18M modules will resume firing, but not fire previously unfired cues. If the audio box is playing audio, the audio continue playing even if firing is disabled. While firing is disabled, the 18R2 will rotate display of "no" + "Fir" to indicate the 18M firing modules are not firing.
Auto-fire functionality now displays count-down - When using the on-the-fly AUTO-FIRE functionality, the bottom two 7-segment displays now display a countdown to the next cue firing. Previously, no countdown would display.
Thumb drive must be in 18R2 prior to power on to load a script - To support COBRA Control Panel integration, the USB thumb drive containing the cobra.csv script file must be placed into the 18R prior to power on. This is because the 18R2 first looks for the USB thumb drive containing a script. Then, after 2 seconds of not finding a script, the 18R2 will attempt to connect to the COBRA Control Panel.
Device names changed in Portal when using the wireless reprogrammer - Using the Wireless Reprogrammer, the device names shown in the Node Views tab have been re-named to be more intuitive. For example, CFS18WiR has been re-named to COBRA_18R. Other devices are now COBRA_18R, COBRA_18R2, COBRA18M, and COBRA_AB respectively.
In addition to the above minor enhancements, we are proud to release a new product called the COBRA Control Panel. This product is a stand-alone accessory to the 18R2. Using the Control Panel, the operator can have a large UI display for viewing modules and script execution.
Stable Release Candidate v3.0.3, April 2014
[ download 3.0.3 release pack
[ download updated reprogramming instructions
synchronization process change:
- The remote / module synchronization process has changed slightly in 3.0.3. To sync, press SYNC on both the remote and module at the same time. Before the units sync, "P" will display on the devices. Once synced, you need to re-start the 18R or 18R2. If you are syncing multiple 18M modules, you don't need to re-start the 18R or 18R2 each time you sync an 18M.
- Audio accuracy - Audio now plays in perfect sync to 18M firing modules. The 350ms manual alignment is no longer required.
- 320k MP3 audio quality - Audio box now supports the highest quality 320k audio compression. The 128k audio compression is still supported.
- Manually fire cues while script is running - You can now manually fire cues while a script is running.
- Fire multiple scripts without disarming - You can now fire multple scripts without disarming and re-arming the 18R2.
- Syncing process changed - When syncing, the 18R, 18R2 and 18M now display "P" before syncing. Once synced, you are required to re-start the 18R or 18R2. You can sync as many 18M modules to the remote while "P" is displayed on the remote.
- Sleep mode no longer displays backlight - The 18M sleep mode will last about 25% longer in sleep mode.
- Sleep mode efficiency improved 25% - The 18M sleep mode will last about 25% longer in sleep mode compared to version 2.1. When asleep, the TEST LED now double blinks vs. the 7-segment --- bars.
- Manual AUTO-FIRE works past 12 seconds - For manual AUTO-FIRE fixed delay sequences, you can now fire sequences greater than 12 seconds.
- Reinforced wireless security - General reinforcements in data encryption, data storage, and integrity of wireless communications.
- Some older 18M hardware versions, specifically those with a STRYKE18 label may require a special hard-wired re-programming process. If you have one of these units, please email email@example.com as we'll ship you a free hard wired reprogrammer.
BETA v3.0.0, April 2013
[ download beta 3.0.1 release pack
18M will update as 3.0.1, 18R2 will update as 3.0.0
- Unlimited channel firing - Fire unlimited channels at the same time, down to a 1/10th second resolution
- Improved STEP scripting - Easily embed timed events into STEP scripts for manually fired scripts
- Audio box integration - The brand new COBRA Audio Box, limited production release early June 2013. Keep tuned!
- Backlight stays on in sleep mode
- Manual firing of cues while a script is running has been disabled (will re-enabled after July 4th)
- In some cases, testing continuity locally from the 18M will cause the 18M to re-start
Note: This release is for the 18M only. The 18R and 18R2 will remain as 2.1.0.
- Sleep mode wake fix - Improved efficiencies / in some cases modules would not wake up from sleep mode and require manual re-boot
v2.1.0, May 2012
- Universal compatibility - The 18R, 18R2 and 18M all function together and are now interoperable.
- 18M 1P low battery level warning - The 18M will alert the 18R or 18R2 if the 1P operational battery is at a power level of 1P3 (30%) or lower. The 18R or 18R2 will display "Lo" followed by the unique module address (e.g. "Lo" followed by "A01").
v1.4.8 / v2.0.1, January 2012
- Bump-proof channel change protection - When accidentally bumping or pressing the CH+ or CH- buttons on the module, the channel won't change. Instead, the user must press and hold the CH+ or CH- buttons momentarily before the channel changes.
- Remote arm confirmation - The 18R remote's ARM LED will flash red when in FIRE / ARM mode if any synced module in the field has the key left in the test position. Otherwise, the LED will display solid red. This is a warning to the remote operator that someone did not arm a module in preparation for firing the show.
v1.4.7, August 2011
- Power up in day mode - The remote and module now power up in day mode, then turn to night mode. This allows for better power viewing in day conditions upon startup.
- LED display confirmation - Upon start-up, all LEDs blink green, then red. This allows quick confirmation of all LED function.
- Improved wake-up timing - Modules now wake up quicker from sleep mode when using more than 5-10+ modules in the field. Previously modules could take up to 5+ seconds to wake up. This timing has been improved with more efficient network traffic settings.
v1.4.5 / 1.4.6, April 2011
- Sub-sequence support - The remote now supports the ability to perform a sub-sequence, which is an automatically sequence between a starting cue and an ending cue. For example, you can sequence between cues 1 and 6, or cues 7 and 12, or cues 1 and 18. You can also sequence backwards from cues 6 to 1. To perform the sub-sequence, simply press SEQ, press the starting cue, then ending cue, then press SEQ again. By holding the SEQ button down, the channel will either auto-increment up or auto-increment down depending on the direction of the sequence. You can continue to hold the SEQ button across multiple channels if desired.
v1.4.4, March 2011
- E-match and consumer igniter clip mode - The firing module now has a setting to toggle between e-match and consumer igniter clip mode. In e-match mode, 100ms of current is provided to each cue. In consumer igniter mode, 2s of current is provided to each cue. The reason for these modes is to avoid a shorted cue to draw current from an active cue. Therefore, when using e-matches, we recommend using the e-match mode vs. consumer igniter clip mode.
To toggle to e-match mode, press and hold SYNC and CH-. 0.1 is displayed on the channel display.
To toggle to consumer igniter clip mode, press and hold SYNC and CH+. 2.0 is displayed on the channel display.
v1.4.3, February 2011
- Hold firing buttons send continual firing commands - The remote now sends the firing command continually when holding any of the firing buttons including the individual 1-18 cue buttons, STEP, and SEQ buttons. Previously, the firing command was sent for 480ms and then stopped. Now, the firing command will be sent until the bottom is released. This will support firing at extreme ranges up to 4,000m beyond the advertised 500m range.
- Sleep mode displays "---" vs. "-" - When in sleep mode, the firing mode and remote now displays "---" vs. "-". This makes sleep mode more obvious to the user vs. thinking the unit is turned off.
- Quicker response when testing cues from firing module - Pressing TEST on the firing module now displays cue continuity faster, commonly under 0.5 seconds. Previously the system would wait up to 1 second before continuity was displayed.
- Holding down CH+/- and SEQ +/- buttons auto-increment improvements - The CH+, CH-, SEQ+, and SEQ- buttons auto increment by 5 when held for more than 2 seconds. This allows users to go quickly from Channel 1 to Channel 99, or from 0.1s to 99 seconds.
- Firing module signal strength - By pressing SYNC on the firing module, the signal strength from only the remote is displayed. Previously, the firing module would display signal strength of any other units including other firing modules. This allows you to test signal strength from firing modules without having to turn off other firing modules.
- Remote signal strength - By pressing SYNC on the remote, the signal strength from the firing module(s) only on the selected channel is displayed. This allows you to check signal strength for individual channels. If multiple modules are on the same channel, a random signal strength is displayed. The functionality does not yet support toggling between individual modules on the same channel.
- Auto sequence between channels - You can now perform automatic sequences from across multiple channels. For example, you can execute a 0.1s sequence from channel 1 to channel 3 by holding down the SEQ button while executing the sequence. Once cue #18 is reached, the channel is automatically incremented and a new sequence begins on channel 2. You can perform this function across as many channels as desired.
- SEQ stop controls - By pressing SEQ after starting an auto-sequence, the remote sends a SEQ stop command to stop any currently running sequence for safety purposes. When pressing the SEQ button to stop, "StP" displays on the remote and the 18-cue LEDs stop sequencing and turn off. By re-pressing SEQ the sequence will start again at 1.
- Software version displayed when system is powered-on - When powering on either the remote or firing module, the software version is displayed. For example, 1.4.0. COBRA will offer a re-programming unit to customers to upgrade their own software. This will allow the user to know what current version they are running and what features exist for that version.
- Wake up on any button press - The remote and firing module will wake up on any button press. Previously this was only when pressing the SYNC button.
- Time to sleep extended to 60 seconds - The remote and firing module will fall asleep after 60 seconds of inactivity in TEST mode only. They will continue to never fall asleep in FIRE mode. Previously the firing module fell asleep after 5 seconds and the remote after 15 seconds.


5 Most Popular Gaming Laptops: The best gaming laptops change significantly throughout the year regarding chassis, multiple power bricks, and RGB lighting galore. Manufacturers are finally coming up with powerful specs for thin gaming machines: sleeker, more portable, and more professional builds. The world of gaming laptops is changing rapidly, and users are much interested to buy the better ones. Here are the 5 most popular gaming laptops.
Dell G15 is the affordable and best laptop for low-end games, and you can enjoy games like Splinter Cell series and Apex Legends. These models are on sale with RTX 3050 / RTX 3050 Ti graphics cards for well.
- CPU: Intel i5-12500H / i7-12700H
- GPU: up to Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti
- RAM: up to 32GB
- Screen: 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080), up to 240Hz
- Storage: up to 1TB SSD
- Ports: 1x RJ45 Ethernet | 3x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 | 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 / Thunderbolt 4 | HDMI | 3.5mm
Asus TUF Dash F15
The Asus TUF Dash F15 comes with awesome graphics and RAM. The laptop is an 11th generation i7 / 1TB / 32GB RAM suite of turbo power. The laptop featured with large touchpad, cooling system, and Alder Lake processor.
- CPU: i5-11300H | i7-11370H | i7-11375H
- GPU: RTX 3050 | RTX 3050 Ti | RTX 3060 | RTX 3070
- RAM: 16GB | 32GB
- Display: FHD at 60Hz | 144Hz | 240Hz
- Storage: 512GB | 1TB
RDP ThinBook 1010
RDP ThinBook 1010 has the best configuration with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal memory. However, it can be extended upto 1 TB of additional memory and an Intel Celeron Processor.
- Brand: RDB
- OS: Windows 10 Home
- Screen size: 14.1 inches
- Processor: Intel Celeron N3450 Quad-Core Processor
- RAM: 4 GB
- Display: HD (1366 * 768 pixels)
- Battery Back-up: 8 hours
- Warranty: 1 Year
- Storage: 64 GB SSD
Alienware X17 R2 RTX 3070 Ti configuration lodges itself between the quite expensive RTX 3080 Ti model and the only barely more affordable RTX 3060.
- CPU: i7-11800H | i9-11980HK
- GPU: RTX 3060 | RTX 3070 | RTX 3080
- RAM: up to 64GB
- Storage: up to 4TB SSD (2x2TB)
- Ports: 1x HDMI | 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 | 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 | 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 / Thunderbolt 4 | Micro SD | Mini Display Port | 1x RJ45 Ethernet | 3.5mm
- Display: FHD at 165Hz / 360Hz | UHD at 120Hz
HP 15 10th Gen Intel Core i3 Processor 15.6-inch(39.6 cm) FHD Laptop
We love how the HP 15s-du1064TU integrates all the good specifications required in a gaming laptop at the best price.
- Price: ₹ 43,799
- Display Type: FHD SVA anti-glare micro-edge display
- Size: 15.6 inches
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080
- Battery Life: 8 hours
- RAM: 8 GB DDR4-2666 SDRAM (1 x 8 GB)
- Storage: 256 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD + 1TB 5400RPM HDD
- Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics
- Processor: Intel Core i3-10110U
- Processor Speed: 2.1 GHz


I've got recently KC901V and playing with it, it's a very good and promising product, but it has some weak points.
I see, in S21 measurement it has poor isolation on 5-7GHz range, real measurement range is only 40-50dB. But if I need to add 3-10dB attenuators to improve ports 50om matching and remove measurements ripple, the useful range becomes even smaller, down to 30-40dB. It's even worse, than s21 measurement on some cheap products, like NWT6000 I have.
I think, most leakage comes from internal RF switch, and this leakage should not change phase depending on DUT load, so this leakage can be compensated by calibration.
I think, as you have a vector S21 measurement, you can record S21 vector response (with disconnected output and input ports), remember it in internal memory and subtract it from real S21 measurements. With this calibration, you will have 60-80 range on 5-7GHz, and this will be a great improvement.


- Supports up to 3 devices at the same time with the same IP address. a separate sub subscription is needed for each device
- You need one device to have Xtrix plus installed (master device) one or two other devices can have the sub-app installed to be the slave devices
- How to Bind. If your Xtrix plus code is 9345675tc and your subcode is e8756774885uc. Enter 9345675tc into your master device with the Xtrix plus app installed. Then enter 9345675tc into the slave devices with the sub-device app to bind the devices. then enter e8756774885uc into the sub-device to activate the subaccount. You need one sub-device code for each slave device.
- Sub-devices get a 12 months code it will only work while the master device has a valid code, if the code runs out on the master device the sub-decieve/s will also stop until the subscription, on the master device, is renewed.
- There is no recording feature on the sub-devices.
Contact me for more information


With the help of our new intern Mattias we finally got around to shooting a short video and taking photos of the Crazyflie 2.0 prototypes. We are really excited to finally show the new version and we are looking forward to getting some feedback from our readers. We are currently finalizing the design of the motor mounts, so for the video and photos we are using 3D printed prototypes printed in our Ultimaker. The design used in the photos is pretty close to the final design, which will also be transparent. The Crazyflies shown doesn’t have any expansion boards attached, instead there’s just a PCB that holds the battery.
[pe2-gallery album=”http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/115721472821530986219/albumid/6038515743776561441?alt=rss&hl=en_US&kind=photo” ]


There isn’t a maximum auto boost on any of the iPhones. However, this max brightness stage is respectable sufficient for handy use on an OLED panel. Retailing at an initial value of $699, the iPhone 12 Mini shares all the hallmarks of its larger siblings – particularly a brand new A14 Bionic processor and an upgraded OLED screen and digital camera system. Assist for the latter goes up to 15W for the iPhone 12. A lesser 12W for the iPhone 12 mini. You may discover all of this week’s finest iPhone 12 Mini offers, all neatly laid out simply under, together with our high picks and recommendations for these on the lookout for that excellent pocket-sized system. Apple’s system tallied 39 frames per second in this take a look at – equivalent to the iPhone 12 and 12 Professional, and a lot better than the Galaxy Word 20 Ultra 25 fps, OnePlus 8T 23 fps, and Pixel 5 7 fps.
Nevertheless, in case you already personal the iPhone 12 Mini, there isn’t much cause so that you can upgrade. The modernized flat, squarish design with rounded edges may be very tangible and simple to grip – much just like the iPhone 4, 4S, five, and 5S have been. The iPhone 12 mini supports DCI-P3, and it routinely switches to this gamma when DCI-P3 content is shipped to the screen. The Apple iPhone 12 mini helps quick battery charging through USB Power Delivery. We’re here to guide you through the major variations between the new Apple smartphones so you recognize which cellphone to plump for within the iPhone 12 mini vs. iPhone SE 2 contest. I primarily use my phone for texting, reminders, jotting down notes, checking Slack, surfing online, and occasional phone calls.
Regular apps we used embrace Slack, Mail, Outlook, Chrome, Safari, TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. I returned it within a week because it was too huge and received the iPhone 7 instead, which I cherished. Last year, I upgraded from the iPhone 7 to the iPhone 11, however returned that inside per week, too – regardless that the 11 is smaller than the 7 Plus, I nonetheless found it unwieldy. This week, Apple unveiled the iPhone mini, the smallest iPhone it has debuted in years, and it appears like the iPhone I’ve wanted for a very, very long time. The endurance ranking above denotes how long a single battery cost will final you if you utilize the Apple iPhone 12 mini for iphone 12 mini an hour each of telephony, web shopping, and video playback daily.


In order to maximize the performance of TL-COLOR Ink and ensure that stable color printing is constantly achieved, we have developed a unique color management system (TL-COLOR Management System) that is centered on the TAKA Proof System. By combining advanced ink formulation technology and cutting-edge image processing technology, creative color expression on an unprecedented level is made possible, and stable color reproduction is consistently realized even with a wide variety of printing methods and printers.
Our solutions maximize the performance of inks that have been optimally designed for all kinds of printing methods,
allowing them to be printed on a range of media, including paper, plastics, and metals.
TL-COLOR Ink is under strict quality control by TAKA ourselves together with the most prestigious manufacturers
The amount of ink used is optimized based on the ink absorption performance of TL-COLOR Ink on various types of media, and the color reproduction range is maximized. In addition, TL-COLOR Ink volume control technology and TL-COLOR Ink printing technology have been developed, and brilliant coloring is successfully achieved together with smooth, subtle gradation properties across the entire color reproduction range.
When printing was undertaken in the past using fluorescent ink, operations that depended on instincts and experience,
such as adjustment of image data and ink volume, had to be repeatedly performed in order to reproduce targeted colors.
As a result, a great deal of time and money were wasted to finally produce the final printed material. At TAKA, we developed a new colorimetry system for quantitative understanding of colors that emit light when exposed to ultraviolet light. The foundation for color management of TL-COLOR Ink was established by the use of this system.
Using the colorimetry system for TL-COLOR UV Fluorescent Ink, we have successfully developed the world’s first ICC Profile for UV Fluorescent Ink, and unique color management technologies. These TAKA’s cutting-edge technologies add significant value to printed materials through accurate color control and incomparable color balance for UV Fluorescent invisible ink.
When printing was undertaken in the past using fluorescent ink, operations that depended on instincts and experience, such as adjustment of image data and ink volume, had to be repeatedly performed in order to reproduce targeted colors.
At TAKA, the color of the final printed material is controlled by acquiring data on printer properties using the colorimetry system for TL-COLOR Ink, preparing a unique profile for the printer, and then reflecting such information into the proofing data. This allows you to obtain targeted color much more easily and to minimize loss of time and printing materials for maximum efficiency. TL-COLOR Management system realizes well-balanced, uniform color even with various different printing methods and medias that helps you maximize your process efficiency.


Gregory Benford, Professor Plasma Physics and Astrophysics (949) 824-5147
Professor Benford earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 1967. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and a consultant for NASA.
This program unites theoretical studies with a parallel experimental program in radiation processes of relativistic electron streams in plasma. Experiments use intense relativistic beams (10 kAmp, 700 keV) propagating in helium plasma. Microwave and atomic spectral (Stark shift) diagnostics measure emission and the underlying turbulent fields. The group also studies the practical methods of high-power microwave emission. Turbulence levels are high, with electric field energy densities comparable with the total thermal energy of the background plasma. Such strong fields demand new theory and sophisticated diagnostics, with fast time resolution (less than ten nanoseconds). This is a new regime -- "superstrong" turbulence -- with statistical properties just being explored.
These experiments and coupled theory apply to galactic jets, quasars, and pulsars. Emission by scattering of energetic electrons from plasma turbulence (which the beams themselves produce) can be much more powerful that the familiar single-particle processes such as synchrotron radiation. The extreme variability of quasars recently discovered in radio and optics may arise from such processes. Calculations of expected power and spectra imply that quasars could be powered by flows with less total energy than formerly expected. Much work needs to be done in relating these new, collective radiation mechanisms with both astrophysical and laboratory observations.
Teaching areas include general properties of strong turbulence and radiation, both in experiment and theory. Astrophysical applications of these fundamental areas are also of interest, such as the brilliant radio features (arcs, filaments, threads) recently found at our own galactic center, and their possible links with hypothesized black holes there.
Coherent Radiation from Energetic Electron Streams via Collisionless Bremmstrahlung in Electrical Plasma Turbulence, (with J. C. Weatherall), Astrophys. J. 378, 543 (1991).
Collective Emission from Rapidly Variable Quasars, Astrophys. J. 391, L59 (1992).
Electron Beam Radiation by Collective Compton Boosting of Strong Turbulence, (with J.C. Weatherall), Phys. Fluids B 4 (12) 4111 (1992).
Collective Radiation from Jets, Proceedings of the 7th IAP Astrophys. Meeting, Extragalactic Radio Sources from Beams to Jets, Paris, July 2-5 (1991).
Statistics of Strongly Turbulent Electric Fields, (with X.-L. Zhai), Phys. Fluids B 5 (6) 1914 (1993).


High-Tech Aplications of Cognition: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Expert Systems, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Robotics
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Can a computer really think like a human being? Yes and no, As you'll see. Although there are important differences between the ways computers and human brains process information, amazing progress has been made in the field of artificial intelligence since the term was first used by researcher John McCarthy in 1956. Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the programming of computer systems to simulate human thinking in solving problems and in making judgements and decisions. The first successful effort to program computers to mimic human thinking was made by Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon in 1972. They developed programs that could play chess as well as human expert could, although not as well as master players. Eventually, AI experts at IBM created a computer called Deep Blue, wich defeated long-time world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. (In 2003, a match between Kasparov and a smaller, slower version of Deep Blue known as Deep Junior ended in a draw.)
Some experts have stated that chess-playing computers such as Deep Blue could not really think on their own. These experts insist that even the most sophisticated "thinking" of computers is not really analogous to human cognition, because, unlike humans, these machines are merely following a set of rules, no matter how complex those rules may be. Stunned by his defeat, Kasparov disagreed with Deep Blue's critics. As the match proceeded, he felt that the computer was showing signs of human-like cognitive ability in the form of strategic understanding. Somewhere along the way, the tactics (specific rules for playing chess) that had been programmed into Deep Blue had apparently been transformed into strategy―the formulation of an overall game plan.
Decades before Deep Blue's stunning defeat of the reigning world chess champion, Newell and Simon had opened the door for computer systems able to do far more than play chess like an expert. Today's expert systems "perform a substantial number of human tasks at a professional level" (Simon, 1995, p. 507). Expert systems are computer programs designed to carry out highly specific funtions within a limited domain. One of the first medical expert systems was MYCIN, a computerized diagnostician in the area of blood diseases and meningitis. Other expert systems perform a range of funtions in medicine, space technology, military defense, weather prediction, and a variety of other fields.
Expert systems operate in well-defined domains; that is, such a system's knowledge base, or store of information, is not inordinately large and is limited to a specific area of expertise (Hendler, 1994). Outside its area of expertise, an expert system not funtion. Expert systems, then, are useful only as assistants to humans; they cannot stand alone. For example, expert systems can be used by physicians to confirm diagnoses or to suggest diagnoses doctors haven't thought of (Brunetti et al., 2002). Yet, these systems far surpass the human brain in their ability to retrieve massive amounts of stored data and to use that data to make decisions based on specific facts and rules that have been preprogrammed into their software. In addition, because they run on computers, expert sistems are vastly superior to humans in carrying out complex mathematical operations at lighting speed.
Moreover, the idea that expert systems can't stand alone is being challenged. For example, some studies show that psychotherapy clients can be helped just as effectively by interacting with expert systems as in face-to-face sessions with a human therapist (Taylor & Luce, 2003). Remember, though, that any expert system relies on the accumulated knowledge of human experts. Thus, it is impossible for computers to totally replace human professionals.
Artificial Neural Networks
Scientists are devising even more sophisticated computer systems, based on their understanding on how neurons in certain parts of the brain are connected and how those connections develop (Buonomano & Merzenich, 1995; Hinton et al., 1995). Computer systems that are intended to mimic the human brain are called Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). Like synaptic connections in the brain, the connections in an ANN can be strengthened or weakened as a result of experience. Many of the newer expert systems utilize ANNs, making them not only able to process information like human experts but also to learn from experience just as those experts do (Brunetti et al., 2002). However, even some of the simplest cognitive tasks that people accomplish without conscious effort can be very difficult to program into a computer system. For example, ANNs that can learn how to distinguish between moving beings, such as humans, horses, cows, and so on, have only recently been developed (Tabb et al., 2002).
Understanding what people say to us seems to be a fairly simple task, one that we take for granted. However, comprehension of natural human language is by far the biggest challenge for ANNs designers. In one of the pioneering studies in this field, computer scientist Alex Waibel and colleagues developed a system:
"programmed to modify itself according to whatever signals come into the system... the speech recognizer actually learns how to identify sounds and words" (Peterson, 1993, p. 254).Voice recognition systems are already used by banks and credit card companies and in other commercial settings. But, unlike humans, such computer systems cannot understand the subtleties of language―tone of voice, accompanying nonverval behavior, or even level of politeness (Peterson, 1993).
Many other aspects of language processing also are extremely difficult for computers to manage. For example, what kind of scene comes to mind when you hear the word "majestic"? Perhaps you see a range of snow-capped mountains. At present, computer scientists are working to develop programs that can enable computers to retrieve images on the basis of such vague, abstract cues (Kuroda, 2002).
It's important to note here that a simple "if-then" program would allow a computer to call up an image of a mountain range when the word "majestic" was keyed in. So, the research with ANNs is not just to use a computer to bring about a particular result, but to be able to program the computer to produce the result in the same way that the human mind does. Perhaps you visualize mountains when you hear the word "majestic" because this word is linked to height as a scene feature. The concept of height is, in turn, associated with mountains. However, skycrapers are tall as well, so why don't you see them in your mind's eye when you hear "majestic"? Perhaps some people do. If so, why does one person see skycrapers while another sees mountains? Is there a particular experience or piece of knowledge that leads to this difference? These are the kinds of cognitive pathways that networks designers attempt to identify in human thinking and duplicate in computer programs. In so doing, these scientists not only program computers to accomplish tasks that seemed nearly impossible just a few short decades ago but, at the same time, gain insight into human cognition.
Do you recall the article about artificial limbs? One area in which human cognition has been applied to develop technological marvels is Robotics―the science of automating human and animal functions. In some cases, robotics has made it possible to manipulate variables in experiments that previously could only be investigated in correlational studies. Scientists studying the mating behavior of bowerbirds, for example, observed the females of the species repeatedly crouching during the attraction phase of mating (Patricelli et al., 2002). To examine the crouching variable in an experiment, they built a robotic version of a female bowerbird whose crouching actions could be remotely controlled. By systematically exposing male bowerbirds to crouching and non crouching behavior, and by varying the amount and frecuency of crouching, they where able to learn that males use females' crouching behavior as cues to initiate displays of their colorful plumage.
Experiments involving robotics birds may seem very far removed from any kind of practical application. However, projects such as this one help scientists and engineers learn more about how to build and program robots to behave like their living counterparts. And the resulting technology has tremendous potential for a wide variety of applications. Some impressive achievements in robotics include the following:
- Robots help stroke patients toward recovery by assisting them in exercise movement.
- Robotic surgical assistants help surgeons make remarkable gains in precision for some difficult surgeries.
- Robotic filling stations will keep satellites aloft.
- Miniature robots will assist tomorrow's soldiers.
- Robots can perform many duties too dangerous for humans (cleaning up toxic spills, finding and destroying land mines, cleaning up nuclear waste sites, etc.).
Some of the applications of robotics and artificial intelligence are so remarkable that is easy to losse sight of how they come to be. Keep in mind that the real power lies not in the machines, but in their creator―human cognition.
The World of Psychology p. 246-7
Do you like this post? Comment, share.


Technologies from Controls Online enable the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT)
With our wide product range of innovative IPC, M2M and Wireless Sensor Networks, Controls Online bring the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) to you.
Controls Online offer IIOT solutions across various environments and our products are used from customers operating in a range of different industries, including the domestic and export markets.
Find out how to increase the efficiency of your business by browsing through our Industry Solutions.
What is IOT?
Do you want to learn more about the Internet of Things (IOT) and the differences to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT)?
In the Controls Online Knowledgebase, our free resource catalogue, our engineers explain the layers of IIOT and how your business can increase its efficiency with the help of IIOT products.
As your technology partners, we aim to build a relationship with you.
If you can't find the Internet of Things technology solution you're
please contact us.


HP EliteBook 1030 G1 Notebook PC
Click Image for Gallery
The premium design of the beautifully compact and durable HP EliteBook 1030 delivers style and substance. The amazing near edge-to-edge screen makes it a great travel companion that’s fully equipped with HP’s leading security and manageability solutions.
|Battery||4-cell, 40 Wh Long Life Li-ion|
|Dimensions||12.2 x 8.27 x 0.62 in|
|Display||13.3" diagonal QHD+ eDP 1.3 touch screen (3200 x 1800)|
|Operating System||Windows 10 Pro 64|
|Processor||Intel® Core™ m7-6Y75 with Intel HD Graphics 515 (1.2 GHz, up to 3.1 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology, 4 MB cache, 2 cores)|


How SMART is a smart city?
TiiQu hosted an interesting discussion panel on how the future of Smart Cities needs to be not only smart but also sustainable and resilient.
Speakers: Domenico Mangiacapra, CEO of Henshin Group and Regiane Relva Romano, Head of Smart City Fances in São Paulo, Brazil. Moderator: Laura Degiovanni
Domenico Mangiacapra discusses on how creating a connected SmartCity ecosystem requires, from a technological perspective, the development of cross‐sectoral platforms designed for services’ integration.
Realizing a connected Smart City ecosystem comes through the implementation of comprehensive and integrated solutions both at foundational infrastructures and IoT software level.
Discover more about how MOVENS, the open-source mobility platform designed to be the Hub in the Smart City, can accomplish the technological integration between two key areas in terms of ecological and social sustainability and in the fight against climate change and pollution: Mobility and Energy.
MOVENS is the open source mobility meta-platform which is evolving to be the IoT Hub in the Smart City and setting a new standard in the Tech Mobility Market.
The high-level abstraction architecture enables integration of all layers involved in the Smart City ecosystem – physical devices, connectivity, services – and implementation of a cutting-edge technology for each layer.
The microservices architecture of MOVENS enables both agile integration of platforms provided by global players and the analysis of large amounts of real-time data based on AI Technologies to deliver actionable business insights.
The goal is a complete integration of all kind of entities involved in a Smart City project to increase user-centric services, strengthen the societal values centered around people and contribute to a more sustainable mobility society.


Watson Gloves BLACK ICE HEATED LINER
Heated glove – Turned On™ battery powered technology offers 3 levels of heat up to 55 degrees Celsius
Touchscreen compatible fingertips
Silicone printed palm for a sure-grip
Slip-on style neoprene cuff with secure Velcro® closure
Package comes with:
- 2 Rechargeable lithium batteries 7.4V 2000mAh
- 1 USB charging cable
Please ensure you store the batteries at room temperate for ultimate performance. Charge batteries through the USB charging cable then into a USB port/source.
Tip: Depending on how drained the batteries are, they can take up to 7 hours to charge. It’s best to charge your gloves overnight. Or purchase extra batteries to switch out during the day.


“Our vision is impenetrable security in our IoT network, give control of data back to the user, to provide unparalleled stability and speed for data transfer and to promote the development of artificial intelligence through user data.”
Regarding their popularity in China and their impressive roadmap, China Crypto News arranged an interview with the Co-Founder of IoT China Peter Lyu to discuss the latest developments and achievements. Being known in the blockchain and crypto environment and their official step into the market in 2017, Peter Lyu, co-founder of IoT Chain (ITC) reported to China Crypto News that,
“We will conduct a public test of the entire network in October, and the main net will be released in December.”
– Peter Lyu, Co-founder IoT Chain
But what does that mean exactly?
During the Huobi Carnival held in Korea on August 3rd, an event backed by Chinese leading global digital asset exchange Huobi, and especially designed to offer consulting service for Korean blockchain-related projects, Peter Lyu gave a review of ITC. He excitedly announced that all the Ethereum Apps can soon be fully migrated to IoT Chain due to the completion of DAG-based blockchain structure, the PBFT consensus algorithm and Ethereum Virtual Machine.
DAG, short for Directed Acyclic Graph, consists of edges and vertices, with each edge directed from one vertex to another. In simple words, it’s blockchain without the blocks, which means DAG can be more scalable. Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) was introduced to enhance the original BFT consensus mechanism, a primary component of distributed blockchain systems. Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is designed to work as a runtime environment for smart contracts executed on the Ethereum network.
He also stated that the migration process from the Ethereum DApps to the IoT Chain will be very simple, “IoT Chain (ITC) will provide a technical manual, with barely any technical obstacles. Projects dedicated to IoT applications, when moved to IoT Chain, will be given publicity and marketing support.”
With their vision of being the leading company to combine the Internet of Things and blockchain technology, their cooperation with wireless RFID technology for the IoT and Gizwits IoT Technology Co. Ltd., which has become one of the most advanced IoT technology platforms, while working with Amazon and Microsoft, seems to be very promising.
He strongly believes that the market size of the Internet of Things will grow beyond the size of the existing Internet. At present time, all the data, which is the source of the internet, is handled and kept by large companies to either generate profit or strategic movements. In contrast, in the Internet of Things and the vision of IoT Chain, everybody will own their data and it will not be handled by some large companies.
Read more articles about Chinese blockchain projects:
According to Goldman Sachs, the IoTs has the potential to connect ten times as many “things” (28 billion) to the Internet by 2020. Mckinsey projected that the IoTs on the global economy might be as high as $6.2 trillion by 2025.
Being seen as China´s IOTA is not a threat for Peter Lyu. He said that “The IoTs blockchain industry is still a blue ocean. The more players in the business, the better. We, IOTA and other IoTs blockchain projects compete against one another, but the competition is not intense and welcome more. Competition is also there to grow and always comes with innovation.” As he is a high believer in the technology itself he even appreciates it.
One of China’s biggest strengths in the blockchain field, the Co-founder claimed, is their outstanding capability in project realization and task delivery. China has a lot of excellent programmers and the number is increasing. However, he also admitted that in terms of theoretical innovation, which includes the ability of developers to generate new hypotheses, discover new phenomena or new ways of thinking regarding blockchain, most Chinese programmers are not as good as their American counterparts and he is looking forward to cooperating with them.
More recently, IoT Chain has built strategic partnerships with a number of companies, including Schonell, an intelligent communications equipment manufacturer from Singapore, Shanghai’s new energy company Adzar Energy and the decentralized trading platform DDEX. As the technical architecture of enterprise-level applications is facing its completion, Peter Lyu said that in the following year, the enterprise use cases around IoT Chain will see more major applications.
In the end, he stated again that the whole team has been working very hard, focusing on the main chain VRF technology and achieve safe and efficient operations with it in the upcoming months.”
To summarize, the tight roadmap and fast implementation of their main chain is very promising, and we are very curious to see how they will deal with the fast pacing competition in their field and the adaption in enterprise-level applications.


Important: The noatime mount option is very important as without it, every single file access on the file system would perform a write operation to the microSD card.
Ubuntu is a free and open source distribution of Linux, which is based on a Debian architecture.
If nothing happens, download Xcode and try again.
Raspberry Pi Tank Car.
Inserting Micro SD card into Raspberry Pi.
Monero node on a Raspberry Pi.
Features of Ubuntu MATE.
The core of the system is based on Linux and Ubuntu.
It is downloadable for testing like all other architectures.
However, I wanted to install ubuntu 16.
If you want to test, go ahead and download the Beta 2 of Ubuntu MATE 16.
Ubuntu MATE for Raspberry Pi operating system has just been updated to the upcoming Ubuntu MATE 16.
Under Ubuntu Mate 16.
Share your opinion on Ubuntu MATE.
APM Planner compiled for a Raspberry Pi.
Alternatives to Ubuntu MATE.
Firstly, why are you posting in a Ubuntu thread, when it is clear you have no interest or knowledge in using Ubuntu on the raspberry pi?
Please sign up to add features for Ubuntu MATE.
Just downloading yours to make sure it works.
One should not have to through acrobatic connotations to have an up and running Ubuntu 16.
Like Raspberry Pi on Facebook.
Ubuntu MATE project leader Martin Wimpress has announced today, April 5, 2016, the release of the second Beta build of the Ubuntu MATE 16.
See Ubuntu Pi Flavor Maker for answers to frequently asked questions.
The raspberry will reboot.
It is a great Linux version for newcomers to the operating system, and it is even possible to set a Windows PC to dual boot Linux Mint thanks to applications like Mint4Win.
Raspberry Pi Desktop for PC and Mac.
Comments on Ubuntu MATE.
Then finally, shutdown the Raspberry Pi.
Cons of Ubuntu MATE.
Would you have a Dropbox address or similar for me to download a disk image?
Best Alternatives to Ubuntu MATE.
Review series, today is the Ubuntu Mate 17.
The deb package I pointed you at was compiled for Ubuntu Mate 15.
You can now use the IP address of your Raspberry Pi as a local node, with port number 18081.
Restart the Raspberry Pi, and verify that SSH and VNC still work.
Note: Since Ubuntu MATE 16.
Download the correct driver to your computer.
Another interesting change that landed in the Beta 2 builds of the Ubuntu MATE 16.
Downloads are available in torrent and HTTP form from phillw.
OS for the Raspberry Pi 3, based on Debian.
There are no reviews for Ubuntu MATE, yet.
Using the Raspberry Pi.
The issue is now to install APM Planner on my running Ubuntu.
Ubuntu Mate will get the support eventually, don't worry.
Back to Raspbian, we can now download the official OS and start preparing it.
Best of all, Ubuntu MATE 16.
Category: Raspberry Pi Project.
Lastly, I'm in the process of downloading ubuntu 18.
Hi carpy thanks for the Ubuntu Mate 16.
Problem with binary in package and Raspberry Pi seems to be to do with Qt Platform.
Never tried installing Ubuntu or Fedora.
Raspberry Pi terminal to stop the x11vnc process.
The download link appears to be down.
The raspberry Pi will reboot, it will takes about 1 minutes.
Windows PCs on your home network, as well as to remotely control your Raspberry Pi device via Putty or VNC Viewer.
Any helpful suggestions to make on the list of alternatives to Ubuntu MATE?
Download wwe games 9 2 download
Download gwx control panel home depot windows
You can now compress the image, download it through scp for instance and follow the standard instructions to put it on your SD card.
Touch Screen Driver for Ubuntu MATE.
Ubuntu Mate has proven to be a very popular distribution ever since its release.
Ubuntu MATE has currently been reviewed with 0 opinions.
Download 4sh 2018 mp3
Useful if you want to create a direct download link, embed in your own player, post from another publishing engine, link to from Patreon, etc.
Raspbian, however, I'm going to wait a bit until the bugs get worked out and OpenGL goes from experimental to beta or something that doesn't make my head hurt.
If I understand what you are asking for, you can download 16.
Raspberry Pi 3, I hope this will be fine with your image!
Raspbian, the official OS for Raspberry Pi.
RaspEX Build 180328, which you can download right now for free through our website.
Feel free to submit your own opinion on Ubuntu MATE!
Raspberry 3 and then the latest kernel.
MATE config also won't allow me to hide the menu bar and bottom bar.
Raspberry Pi 3, running Stretch and I am trying to setup a USB driver for a motor controller.
Follow Raspberry Pi on Twitter.
Raspberry Pi power supply.
Got Ubuntu Mate installed and updated to latest 16.
Ubuntu based operating system that beautifully integrates the MATE desktop.
Raspberry Pi Robot Car.
We take Ubuntu MATE 18.
USB support on Raspberry.
Live DVD ISOs Are Now Available to Download.


The first two smartphones to run on T-Mobile's fast HSPA+42 network are coming soon, the operator announced Monday.
The HTC Amaze 4G and the Samsung Galaxy S II will be the first from T-Mobile capable of download speeds around 8 Mbps (bits per second) or as fast as 20 Mbps depending on availability and network load.
Both phones are expected to become available on T-Mobile's website starting Oct. 10.
T-Mobile USA Chief Marketing Officer Cole Brodman announced the devices at the Mobilize conference in San Francisco. He indicated that T-Mobile will not get the Apple iPhone if the next version of that device is unveiled next month as expected. Read more...


New Delhi: The smartphone company, Lava, is all set to launch its first smartwatch specially made for Indians. Although it will have artificial intelligence features, according to sources, it will be priced at less than Rs 4,000.
This Lava smartwatch will be available both in stores and online. With this new gadget, Lava will compete with brands like Fire-Boltt, Noise, and Boat, who already sell smartwatches.
Till now Lava concentrated on basic phones and smartphones. With the smartphone, Lava is venturing into the world of wearable technology, reported The Economic Times.
Other phone companies like Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, and Vivo already sell smartwatches and other wearable gadgets.
In 2023, Lava was the fastest-growing smartphone brand in India in the Rs 10,000–Rs20,000 price range.
Lava has entered the Indian markets by introducing different series of smartphones like Yuva, Blaze, Storm, and Agni.


Today I finally found some time to try our my Raspberry Pi.
Funnily, although it is very inexpensive hardware it is too advanced (HDMI) for our monitor at home. Luckily you can just plug it into the switch and it connects and requests an IP address; from there it is just an ssh away and ready to use.
I had the (not so original as it turns out ref 1, ref 2) idea to use ecl as a Common Lisp. Under Raspbian, ecl and gcl are the only available CL options. After a simple apt-get install ecl we are ready to set up quicklisp and go. The Pi is no speed demon but not too unbearable.
However, it seems that the shipped ecl is non-unicode. Loading flexi-streams breaks as it assumes that you can stuff interesting characters into a char, but char-code-limit is 256.
I spent some time trying to compile a unicode enable version of ecl but got nowhere due to processor incompatibilities.
As basically anything interesting requires flexi-stream, for the moment I'll go with a hack I found on the net:
(deftype char-code-integer () "The subtype of integers which can be returned by the function CHAR-CODE." #-ecl'(integer 0 #.(1- char-code-limit)) #+ecl'(integer 0 65533))
Let's see how far that takes us…
Update: The next package to fail is babel, also due to lacking unicode support. So I guess it's time to get a proper unicode supporting ecl going.


Rich solar was established in Jun 2009,Rich Solar has supplied more than 3.8GW photovoltaic solar panels and millions of units of batteries , Rich Solar is focusing on product development , production , system integration , sales and service . Products include Poly-crystalline PV panel , Mono-crystalline PV panel , Flexible Solar Panel,Lithium battery ,Valve Regulated Lead Acid ( VRLA) Battery ,solar charge controller, solar inverter, Turn-key completed Off Grid and On Grid solar systems . Also, it has integrated the world's first-class manufacturing engineering and management system, built up the international management and technology R&D team composed by world-class management and solar PV power generation experts. Furthermore, it has set up R&D platforms such as the National Enterprise Technology Center, Zhejiang Engineering and Technological Research Center, Rich solar Research Institute, and so on, in order to become an up-rising star in the industry. Develop the PV modules and projects for power generation at the same time and application of solar PV and creating the most influential solar PV brand. Our factory covers 20,000 Square Meters ,has more than 200 employees .Rich Solar has largely realized production line automation with imported advanced equipment and technology from Germany , USA and Japan .We keep strict controls on incoming inspection , production process , finished goods inspection. All products are certified by TUV IEC(Germany) ,UL(America) ,JET(Japan),CSA( Canada) ,CEC( Australia ) and CE . With excellent quality and good reputation.Rich Solar Panel and battery have been exported to more 120 different countries in the worldwide , especially to America , Germany , UK , Japan . Rich Solar will continue to innovate and improve its renewable energy product portfolio , to help the world create a cleaner and brighter future .


Cyber security and privacy are issues that concern everyone living in this technologically dependent world. The work within our Security and Privacy Research Group is underpinned by considering critical issues for industry, government and society. For a list of academic papers by researcher or research area, see publications.
Cryptography is the study of mathematical techniques that secure and protect information in a digital format. It is used in securely sending and receiving messages. The security aspects include confidentiality, integrity, authentication and nonrepudiation. The protocols that apply cryptographic methods are called cryptographic or security protocols. Applications of cryptography include electronic voting, e-passports and RFIDs etc.
Security protocols are notoriously difficult to design and extremely error-prone. Therefore, formal verification is crucial to assess their security. This involves analysing systems with respect to a formal specification using mathematics. This helps to identify flaws within electronic systems and develop solutions for those problems.
Technologies today are increasingly operating wirelessly, enabling communication to occur further, faster and more flexibly. Our research covers a broad range of wireless devices, protocols and systems, from mobile phone networks to embedded devices communicating with one another or even vast systems of clouds, servers, products and users. With applications in conjunction with our other areas of expertise, this research topic focuses on ensuring wireless communication can occur securely while maintaining the functionality necessary for individuals and organisations to operate effectively.
From immobilisers and key fobs to sat-nav and self-driving cars, automotive vehicles are becoming increasingly wireless. This trend, that is only increasing in pace and extent, brings ubiquitous computing to our roads. To ensure security, privacy and safety, our researchers are testing the digital systems embedded in modern cars, in order to identify weaknesses and suggest solutions for manufacturers and users.
Electronic voting has boomed in the past decade, and more than a dozen countries have already used it for political binding elections, including Switzerland, Estonia, USA and Australia. Electronic voting has also become a choice more and more usual for elections in professional colleges or boards. The potential benefits of its use are the ease of voting for citizens living abroad, shortening the duration of the counting procedure, providing a more exact count of the votes or decreasing the number errors with respect to paper voting. The disadvantages are also important, including the risks of computer attacks, the possibility of coercion related to the fact that the act of voting will not be conducted in a public place, or the lack of voters' confidence in the system because of its complexity. Usually it is distinguished between remote voting, meaning that the voting device can potentially be any smart device with an Internet connection; and polling-site voting, meaning that the voters are authenticated in a polling station, but they use an electronic voting machine to cast their votes.
Cloud computing means entrusting data to information systems that are managed by external parties on remote servers, collectively known as the cloud. Cloud security raises privacy and confidentiality concerns, because the service provider has access to all the data and could accidentally or deliberately disclose it.
All aspects of our research are underpinned by a commitment to tackling challenging issues that are important to society. Amidst our theoretical and technical outputs with impact across a range of sectors in industry and governments we maintain an awareness of the variety of stakeholders and perspectives concerning social issues the consequences of which we cannot yet fully predict. Working between the need for security and individuals' right to privacy, our research consistently displays a sensitivity to its social impact, particularly when dealing with the often controversial issues in cyber security for current and future society.
The Security and Privacy group maintains a firm commitment to high quality research and education in cyber security. This includes not only pursuing each strand of intellectual endeavour separately, but ensuring that teaching is informed by up-to-date research and that research responds to the needs to raise the profile of security issues in computer science education. To achieve this, our researchers undertake work investigating the direct application of cyber security and privacy issues in teaching environments. For more information about our range of specific programmes, see education.
Connected and autonomous vehicles are set to revolutionise our transportation and re-shape our cities. They will prevent accidents, reduce parking space requirements, lower congestion and pollution. But in order to achieve this, they need several sensors and wireless interfaces which connect them with other vehicles, consumer devices, infrastructure and the Internet. This connectivity adds great functionality but it also introduces a myriad of security and privacy threats. Safety critical functionality in the vehicle is controlled by a multitude of Electronic Control Units (ECUs) which are fully programmable. As vehicles become more programmable, complex and interconnected, they also become more vulnerable to cyber attacks.
The main goal of this fellowship is to secure connected and autonomous vehicles, making them resilient to this type of attacks. We will achieve this goal by developing techniques to secure each component of the vehicle's electronic architecture: ensuring that each ECU only executes code that is suitably authenticated; using model learning techniques to develop a framework for automated security testing of ECUs in a way that it scales; securing the vehicle's sensors such as radar, lidar and optical cameras against signal spoofing, tampering and denial of service attacks which would cause them to output inaccurate readings; and improving the communication protocols between vehicles and between the vehicles and the infrastructure in order to provide authenticity, non-repudiation and privacy while complying with stringent real-time constraints.
This project is funded by an EPSRC Fellowship.
Many modern processors are equipped with hardware extensions that enable some kind of Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). This allows programs to run securely - protected from other programs or operating system software running on the processor. By establishing a secure interface between the user and the hardware-anchor, we can make user platforms and devices more resilient to malware and other types of cyber attacks.
One of the main goals of this project is to promote and facilitate the adoption of TEE as the main trust anchor for our security architectures. As such, the security of the TEEs themselves is of paramount importance. We will perform a thorough evaluation of the security features of different TEE implementations to determine their suitability as trust anchors. This includes assessing cryptographic protocols, side-channel vulnerabilities, and implementation weaknesses.
Hardware supported TEEs aim to ensure that code can execute securely. However, user interface devices (for example, a keyboard, display or touch screen) are usually not connected directly to the secure hardware, which means that the user cannot interact securely with the TEE. We will address the limitations of users interacting directly with TEEs through analysing use cases and developing secure interfaces using auxiliary devices and dedicated features.
Authentication today is largely based on user supplied information like passwords or biometrics. These approaches often use information that is easy to steal or brute force. The industry has been moving towards multi-factor authentication as a means of spreading risk, but these approaches impose usability challenges while still relying on weak factors. We will investigate opportunities to leverage strong hardware-based security mechanisms to improve both the strength and usability of authentication. We will also build an architecture for designing protocols and user experiences that leverage these hardware security primitives to enhance the security, manageability, and usability of user authentication over existing approaches.The analysis and applications of our research findings will be demonstrated and implemented on suitable platforms including secure hardware, smart devices and integration with authentication tokens.
This project is funded by the EPSRC as part of the new £5million UK Research Institute in Secure Hardware and Embedded Systems (RISE) led by CSIT at Queen's University Belfast and including the University of Cambridge and the University of Bristol.
The goal of FutureTPM is to design a quantum-resistant (QR) Trusted Platform Module (TPM) by designing and developing QR algorithms suitable for integration in a TPM. The algorithm design will be accompanied with implementations and performance and security evaluations, as well as formal security analyses in the full range of TPM environments: hardware, software and virtual. The lead users will be in the online banking, activity tracking and device management domains, which will provide environments and applications to validate the FutureTPM framework.
Security, privacy and trust in a computing system are usually achieved using tamper-resistant devices to provide core cryptographic and security functions. The TPM is one such device and provides the system with a root-of-trust and cryptographic engine. However, to sustain enhanced security posture, it is crucial that the crypto functions in the TPM are not merely secure for today but will also remain secure in the long-term against quantum attacks.
FutureTPM will address this challenge by providing a new generation of TPM solutions, incorporating robust and provably-secure QR algorithms. Research on QC has drawn enormous attention from governments and industry; if, as predicted, a large-scale quantum computer becomes a reality within the next 15 years, existing public-key algorithms will be open to attack. Therefore, a smooth transition to QR cryptography is required, since history shows that any significant change takes time and requires theoretical and practical research before adoption. A key strategic objective of FutureTPM is to contribute to standardization efforts at EU level within TCG, ISO and ETSI. The consortium consists of high caliber industrial and academic partners from across Europe combining QR crypto researchers with TPM developers. Because the TPM shares many functions in common with other widely-used devices--such as HSMs or TEEs--the FutureTPM solution is expected to benefit them as well.
Project partners include:
The University of Birmingham will be contributing research into security requirements and properties, post-quantum cryptography, security verificationa and analysis, and run-time vulnerability analysis.
The FutureTPM project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 779391.
StatVerif is an automated verifier for security protocols which extends ProVerif with constructions which may used to model security protocols with global mutable state. In particular, the kind of security properties which may be verified is the same as ProVerif, and the syntax of StatVerif processes is an extension of the syntax for ProVerif processes with constructs for modelling states.
Employers often want to verify an applicant's academic credentials. Currently, this requires manual processes by institutions to trace records and verify degrees. This approach is slow, subject to individual institutions' record-keeping, and exposes graduates to a lack of privacy concerning when and by whom their credentials are being authenticated. Blockchain offers one solution to this problem. As an "append-only whiteboard in the sky", the blockchain ledger is a verifiable source for cryptographically proving the existence of official documents. Employers can be given an access code by a graduate that enables them to authenticate credentials without having to involve the awarding institution. Similarly, the institutions need only add their records to the Blockchain, saving time and resources. While a blockchain system is designed for transparency, this system also adds a component of privacy for graduates, as their former institution need not be made aware that potential employers are making a request to validate their certificates. For sensitive applications, and for enhancing privacy in general while also improving functionality, the blockchain approach is an effective solution to the problem of credential authentication.
As part of an international collaborative effort, our researchers are running a pilot scheme at the University of Birmingham to demonstrate the potential of this application of Blockchain technology. If it proves successful, it is hoped that more institutions and employers will embrace the system, increasing the verifiability of credentials between institutions, between countries, and potentially beyond academic achievement to other areas that may need credentials to be authenticated in an accessible and automated way.
Electronic voting protocols should achieve two antagonistic security goals: privacy and verifiability. Additionally, they must be practical, from a usability, operational, and effciency point of view. Privacy can be expressed via several, increasingly demanding security properties:
Building on the Helios scheme, and its variant Belenios, we propose a new voting scheme, BeleniosRF, that offers both receipt-freeness and end-to-end verifiability. It is receipt-free in a strong sense, meaning that even dishonest voters cannot prove how they voted. We provide a game-based definition of receipt-freeness for voting protocols with non-interactive ballot casting, which we name strong receipt-freeness (sRF). To our knowledge, sRF is the first game-based definition of receipt-freeness in the literature, and it has the merit of being particularly concise and simple. Built upon the Helios protocol, BeleniosRF inherits its simplicity and does not require any anti-coercion strategy from the voters. We implement BeleniosRF and show its feasibility on a number of platforms, including desktop computers and smartphones.
This research was presented at ACM CCS 2016.
Generally speaking, a cryptographic protocol is an algorithmic procedure that enables to perform a certain task under certain requirements, while assuring that malicious attempts to abuse the performance of this task are unsuccessful. For instance, an encryption scheme allows two parties to communicate over a public channel while attaining privacy; a digital signature scheme provides authenticity, integrity and non-repudiation for digital documents.
To devise a way to prove formally that a given cryptographic protocol is secure has required (and it is still requiring) a lot of effort from researchers. A fundamental set of techniques developed to solve this question have led to the so-called provable security or reductionistic security paradigm. This paradigm can be explained as follows: take some cryptographic goal, like achieving privacy via encryption. The first step is to make a formal adversarial model and define what it means for a scheme to be secure, i.e. which are the functionalities that the scheme should provide when it is fairly used, and on the other hand, which are the functionalities that illegitimate users should not be able to perform. Then, a particular scheme, is shown to be sound via a reduction. Such a reduction implies that the only way to defeat the protocol in that model is to break an underlying atomic and more simple primitive. The latter problem should be known or be generally regarded as infeasible to break.
Modern automotive vehicles have several wireless interfaces, and are interconnected with various devices and with the internet. This connectivity adds great functionality but it also introduces a number of security and privacy threats. This project focuses on improving the security of the next generation electronic vehicles. Working in conjunction with Jaguar Land Rover, the research is developing optimized implementations of cryptographic primitives and protocols for time critical automotive applications.
From the point of view of computer security, there are several criteria that any electronic voting protocol should ideally meet. With regards to the integrity of the ballot casting process, we have individual verifiability, which allows voters to check whether his vote has been cast as intended and contributes to the announced results; and universal verifiability, which ensures that the outcome of the election was correctly calculated from the individual votes, and that this is verifiable by any observer.
Another desirable property is that of vote confidentiality, i.e. that it should be impossible in practice to learn how a particular voter voted, unless this is revealed by the result (e.g. if the vote is unanimous).
An advanced anonymity property is called receipt-freeness, and guarantees that a voter cannot prove how she voted even if she reveals her secret materials to an adversary, including randomness and credentials. These properties shall help achieving the goal of coercion-resistance, whereby powerful attackers are prevented from controlling and deciding how voters under coercion vote.
Electronic voting - especially remote voting over the internet - is very challenging to secure. Yet there is a growing call for internet voting to enable and encourage broader participation. However, such systems must ensure both privacy and verifiability to ensure that elections are legitimate and protected from corruption.
Du-Vote is a step towards tackling the problem of internet voting on user machines that are likely to have malware. Du-Vote is a new remote electronic voting protocol that eliminates the often-required assumption that voters trust general-purpose computers. This will enable secure internet voting on untrusted or even compromised hardware.
PRINCESS is part of a DARPA funded project, working in conjunction with the US R&D company Charles River Analytics. The research is developing techniques for adaptive software operating in uncertain environments, such as UUV control software. With the complex and constantly evolving technical ecosystems of contemporary software, adaptations need to verifiably correct in the context of repairing security, logical and performance-related vulnerabilities. These methods involve inferring the impact of evolution on application behaviour and performance, automatically triggering transformations that beneficially exploit these changes, and validating such transformations. The project aims to realise foundational advances in the design and implementation of complex software systems with increased robustness, agility and longevity.
Confidentiality from the Cloud Provider is an ongoing research project aimed at developing ways in which SME cloud service users can obtain the benefits of cloud computing without having to divulge their data to the cloud provider. So far the project has produced two systems:
ProVerif is a tool for automatically verifying cryptographic protocols to prove secrecy, authentication and equivalences. However, ProVerif over-approximates the adversary's power to enable verification of processes under replication. Unfortunately, this results in ProVerif reporting false attacks. This problem is particularly common in protocols whereby a participant commits to a particular value and later reveals their value. By using a compiler that inserts phase statements into a process, researchers in the Security and Privacy group introduced a method to avoid false attacks when analysing secrecy.
The paper and examples can be found here.
The monitoring of peer to peer file sharing: This work was the first to analyse the direct monitoring of illegal file sharing. Our findings include:
The full report, which includes an ethical consideration of the research, can be found here.
Since 1999, the University of Birmingham has been leading the development of the PRISM probabilisitic model checker, a tool for formal modelling and analysis of systems that exhibit random or probabilisitic behaviour. This tool can be used to analyse security protocols, as well as communication/multimedia protocols, randomised distributed algorithms, biological systems and others.
This collection of projects explores the Security and Privacy group's interest in how mutual infomration can be estimated and how information leakage can be measured in real systems. This includes:
Tools and software to support these projects can be found here.
We are surrounded by computerised systems, upon whose secure and reliable operation we are increasingly dependent. Yet flaws in these systems are common, from power plants to travel cards, and these come at high costs for individuals, companies and governments alike. So, rigorous, mathematically-sound techniques to check the security of computerised systems are essential. Security, though, is not absolute: we may only be able to guarantee that an attack on a system is possible with low probability, rather than impossible. Furthermore, system designs often need to trade off the degree of security or privacy offered against other practical concerns such as response time or power consumption. So, effective methods for the analysis of security also need to take these quantitative aspects into account.
This project developed fully-automated techniques to formally verify the correctness of security systems, to identify flaws in their operation, and to fix or optimise aspects of their design. This was achieved by bringing together techniques from several different areas:
Building upon recent advances in these fields, and upon existing efforts to create efficient and scalable verification methods, this project developed novel techniques to verify security systems, implement them in freely-available software tools and apply them to a variety of security applications, from electronic voting schemes to anonymous communication networks.
By learning about penetrating security systems, students can gain a practical knowledge of how they work as well as insights into attacks from an attacker's perspective. Our researchers have developed a virtual machine (VM) framework for cyber security education, which is used for courses offered at the University of Birmingham. This VM includes several capture the flag (CTF) style exercises that students can complete to support their learning:
More information - including the virtual machine, exercises and documentation - can be found here.


1. Develop and maintain test ware scripts and automation features for HW design validation and manufacturing test processes；
2. Be engaged in embedded diagnostics features, enhancements and unit test development；
3. Validate test ware features, defect fixes, enable and maintain continuous integration test sequences on target platforms；
4. Test solutions requirements, sequences capturing tools, user guides and documents creation and maintenance；
5. Test infrastructures and lab systems setup, configuration and maintenance.
1. Familiar with C/C++ programming, experience in Linux environment SW development.
2. Mastering of Python language is a plus；
3. Interest in platform level or embedded software development；
4. Understanding of computer architecture and/or virtualization technologies of IA platform is a plus；
5. Smart, able to learn, fast adapting to new technologies and skills；
6. Good communication in English and be able to work in a global team；
7. On-campus Master student of CS or EE (Graduates at 2018/2019).


Input Output Operations using AVR Studio
This is the very first tutorial of the AVR (Atmega-16/32) tutorial series. Note that in this and subsequent tutorials most of the examples will be based on Atmega32, though they can be implemented on Atmega16 too without any major changes. If and when some changes are required to be made it will be mentioned. So let’s begin, first of all we will be discussing AVR studio which is an editor, assembler, compiler, simulator and much more. In this tutorial we will discuss the coding part in assembly language. Many people run away from assembly language programming but when you start learning microcontrollers properly and thoroughly and write your own programs the assembly gives much easier ability to think, anaylse and apply the logic to make your programs and you can directly take advantage of microcontroller’s architecture while writing your program. If you want you can shift to C very easily after that, it is just a step away after you have learnt assembly. We shall be launching AVR C tutorial series in a few days.
Atmega-16/32 Pin Description
This is the basic pin description diagram. There are a lot of labels marked in the figure above but it isn’t that difficult. The alternate functions of the pins are marked in bracket.
(This may not be exactly same for the ATmega16-32, but we will not be discussing the alternative functions in this tutorial.)
Physical Ports of Atmega-16/32
The Atmega-16/32 has four physical ports on the chip as marked in the figure above. These ports are named as PortA, PortB, PortC and PortD. Each port is basically a collection of 8 pins grouped together.
Basic Circuit of AVR
The pins marked ‘Gnd’ are to be grounded, ‘Vcc & AVcc’ are to be given 5V. The reset pin is also high but we usually prefer to put a switch at this point for the reset of the chips. If the switch is pressed for a minimum pulse of time then it will reset the chip.
Note: ‘AVcc’ should be connected to 5V supply through a capacitor when using PORTA pins as ADC, though in simple applications capacitor is not necessary.
This circuit is used whenever we wish to do anything with the µcontroller. In addition to this you will have to add other hardware required depending upon what do you want to accomplish.
Now for the given tutorial we will be using the PORTB for connections. We will connect 8Leds at each pin of PORTB.
The above picture depicts how each LED will be connected to corresponding pin of portB of Atmega32. So let’s see the complete circuit…
Complete Circuit Diagram
Photograph of switch
The switch is required so that we are able to ‘reset’ i.e. restart the microcontroller at any time if required.
People who have worked on some other microcontroller must be familiar with word ‘Registers’.
In short, registers are used to store information temporarily. That information can be of one byte (or two) of data to be processed or an address pointing to data to be fetched.
The AVR has 32 general purpose registers and many other registers also. There are three registers associated with each port that are required for the Input-Output operation for AVR. These registers are DDRx register, PORTx register, PINx register where x can be (A, B, C, D). These register are very important and are used for reading and writing to the ports.
Note: The physical ports and the register PORTx has same name but the user must not confuse between them, from now on while discussing register PORTx it will be referred as ‘PORTx Register’ to avoid confusion.
These registers will be discussed later on in detail but before that let’s write our first program and try to understand it.
Download the AVR Studio from Atmel and install it. We will be showing you how to start working directly with the software. It is an environment where can write your programs, build corresponding hex codes, do debugging and much more!
Using the datasheet
If you are beginner do not go through the datasheet now as you will find it quite difficult to understand. Luckily you are not supposed to do that, either. The datasheets are complete technical documents that you should use as a reference when you are in doubt how a given peripheral or feature works.
We will be covering the necessary theories and relevant concepts as we move on and in no time you will have confidence to write your own programs.
After you have downloded and installed ‘AVR Studio’, just open the it and follow the steps…
STARTING A NEW PROJECT IN AVR STUDIO
When you will launch the AVR Studio a splash screen will appear as shown below. In case it doesn’t choose ‘New Project’ option from the ‘Project’ menu.
Choose ‘New Project’ as shown above.
- Choose ‘Atmel AVR Assembler’ option in ‘Project type:’
- Write the ‘Project name’ (It doesn’t accept a space in name).
- Choose a suitable ‘Location’ & hit ‘NEXT>>’.
- Choose the debug platform in this case – ‘AVR Simulator’.
- Choose the device (Here we have chosen Atmega32 for our project) & click on ‘FINISH’.
Now we can start our first project and understand the basics of I/O (Input/Output) operations.
We will learn how the value of the I/O registers changes. AVR Studio has a fantastic tool for showing step by step execution. Let’s get started!
As shown in the figure above
- Region 1 – Write your program here
- Region 2 – Menu bars (obviously you know this )
- Region 3 – You know what it is yes toolbar section
- Region 4 – I/O View
- Region 5 – Project directory and distribution
- Region 6 – Name of the microcontroller which is currently in use
When you will write your code you will notice that the instructions, comments, etc will be written in different colors. This is a very important feature of an ‘editor’. This remarkably helps in distinguishing between types of syntaxes and lines.
Below is a screenshot of our very first AVR code.
Let’s understand the program before going further:
Below there is a line by line explanation of the whole code.
There are three registers associated with Input/ Output Ports in AVR.
Selecting the direction of pin:- DDxn bit (in the DDRx Register) selects the direction of this pin.
- DDxn =1, Portx nth pin is configured as an output pin (since there are eight pins in all in a particular port so ‘n’ can be any number between 0-7).
- DDxn=0, Portx nth is configured as an input pin.
Activating the pull resistors:-
- PORTxn= 1, the pull up resistors are activated (while the nth pin is configured as input pin)
- PORTxn= 0, the pull up resistors are deactivated (for nth pin).
Inputs of the AVR are generally in Hi-Z state. This makes them prone to catching noise and picking up false signals. So it is advisable to activate the pull up resistor to reduce noise.
Status of pin when configured as an output pin:-
- PORTxn= 0, the output is driven high.
- PORTxn= 1, the portx nth pin is driven low (zero).
To put it bluntly, the PINx register contains the status of all the pins in that port.
- If the pin is an input pin, then its corresponding bit will mimic the logic level given to it.
- If it is an output pin, its bit will contain the data that has been previously output on that pin. (The value of an output pin is latched to PINxn bit, you can observe it when we do step by step execution in AVR-Studio shown below)
Click on ‘Build and Run’ option present in ‘Build’ menu bar.
We can observe the values of registers, Program counter, Cycle Counter, Port registers and much more after execution of each instruction!
We can do step by step execution in AVR Studio by pressing F11 after code has been successfully built and is running… Let’s do it.
- Region 5 - This confirms that are program has been successfully completed, Congratulation!!
- Region 1 - This mark indicates the instruction to be executed in RAM.
- Region 2 - This indicates location of Flash memory (ROM), the program are burned in EEPROM and executed in RAM. (The beginners may find this concept little confusing but don’t worry for now just move on, we shall discuss it some later on).
- Region 3 - You can look at the current values of register by pressing the (+).
- Region 4 - You can also get the values of the register associated with the PORTB.
Now press F11 once, the arrow jumps to the next position as shown..
- Note the value of R16 by scrolling down, you will find it zero.
- Clock Cycle is shown in blue colour on left hand side. This indicates the number of clock cycles after the program started executing. An instruction can take one or two clock cycles.
On Pressing F11 again you will observe this…
And Pressing F11 again...
- The PORTB is set as an output… (the register DDRB is set)
Pressing F11 again we can see that…
- The PORTB register is loaded with 255, this output to the pins of PORTB (1111 1111b) and all the LEDs start glowing…
If we Press F11 again we will observe this…
- The PINx register is latched with the value which was the output before this. This proves the fact that the output values from pins are latched to register bits PINxn after one cycles…
Keep on playing with this by pressing F11 again and again & observe things till you understand everything properly and are completely satisfied.
Burning the ROM of microcontroller
To get the hex file (that you will need to burn to your microcontroller) just open the folder where you have saved your project.
In this case it is - D:\testprog\1
You can buy a board to burn the AVR or build your own ISP, this topic will be covered in next tutorial and by that time you can check out this tutorial - Parallel Port Programmer for ATMEGA 16/32 - by one of our users - heloitsadi.


Dash Cam Full HD 1080P
· 1920 x 1080 p FULL HD resolution.
· 140 degree A + grade high - resolution wide angle lens.
· The Advanced photography compression technology, 2.4 inch high resolution LCD, can watch while recording.
· Night vision function
· Support HDMI full HD video transmission
· Support TF memory card up to 32 GB.
· Seamless loop - cycle recording function.
· Motion detection function.
· G - sensor function.
· Language support: English, Russian, French, German, Italian, Spainish, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Chinese.
· Item Type: Car DVR
· Frames Per Second: 30
· Assembly Mode: Portable Recorder.
· Battery: Built-in
· Interface: AV-Out,USB2.0,HDMI
· Display Size: <3"
· Pixels: 500Mega
· Imaging Sensor: 1/4 Color
· Video Format: AVI
· View angle: 105°-140°
· Screen Ratio: 4:3
· Touch Screen: NO
1 x Podofo A1 Car DVR Camera
1 x Car charger for DVRs
1 x USB cable
1 x Bracket
1 x User Manual
1 x Retail Box
1. Which card is needed?
As the car camera is very strict with a memory card.
Please use an original and high speed class 10 cards, 4-32GB.
Be careful & don't use the cheap card, they might damage the camera.
2. Do not charge via USB cable from computer, please charge via the 12V car charger.
It may burn the motherboard if on truck of 24 v power, please add a 24v to 12v converter.
3. To keep driving safe, as the car temperature is very high when outdoors in summer, if large battery, it will be easy to explode, so the battery of car DVR are produced very small. The battery is only to save the video when power off suddenly. Therefore please charge via car charger when used.
4. How to loop recording?
1> Please turn on the loop recording in the menu.
2> Please format the card in the camera before use.
3> Please turn off the G-sensor due to the high sensitivity, it will save many videos which can't be cycle covered, so the card is full soon, then it stops the video.
5. View Angle:
The angle showed in the display is not the view angle, please play the video on computer, it will be larger and clearer.


Open source, cross-platform spin simulation framework
Spirit is developed in large part at the PGI-1/IAS-1 institute at the Forschungszentrum Jülich. The spin simulation Web App on this website was developed in the context of the Spirit framework and is based on its web-interface.
The core of Spirit is written in C++ and designed to run platform-independently. Note that Python bindings are also available. Parallelisations using OpenMP for CPUs and CUDA for GPUs enable high performance. You may find the source code at https://github.com/spirit-code/spirit
It’s most important features include:
- Fast cross-platform C++ core with CUDA support
- Spin dynamics simulations and energy minimizations
- Transition path calculations using a nudged elastic band method
- Saddle point searches using the minimum mode following method
- Transition rate calculations using harmonic transition state theory
- C API and Python bindings (other languages also possible)
- Parameter Control during Simulations
- Powerful live visualisations in desktop user interface
- Easy and portable spin simulations in web interface
The Desktop User Interface
The following image shows the desktop user interface that is provided with Spirit. In comparison to the web interface, it provides additional calculation methods, a choice of optimizers and advanced parameter and configurations customisation.
The Desktop User Interface includes powerful visualisations which enable the detailed study of complex 3D states, as illustrated by the following example containing straight, bent and bifurcated Skyrmions, as well as Bobbers:
A Python package is available, which can easily be installed using
pip install spirit
Both the core library and the desktop user interface can be manually compiled on almost any machine, if a C++11 compiler is available.


DigiElch 7 from ElchSoft is an electrochemical simulation program for a wide variety of systems involving charge transfer reactions, adsorption and coupled chemical reactions. A demonstration version of DigiElch 7 is available.
For a no-cost, two-week demo of DigiElch, please click here.
The program works for the most common electrode geometries including the simulation of thin layer cell experiments and the exact (two-dimensional) simulation of band and disk microelectrodes. Effects such as IR-drop and/or double layer charging can be included in all these simulations. It can simulate Cyclic Voltammetry, Chronoamperometry, Square Wave Voltammetry, and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy
Includes all the features of DigiElch Standard, plus a non-linear regression strategy applied to multiple data files simultaneously to determine thermodynamic and kinetic parameters from your experimental data.
The optional Reference 600 module adds direct experimental control to DigiElch 7. The experimental setup with DigiElch includes hardware settings for the Reference 600 such as current range, filters and control amplifier bandwidth in addition to experimental details like electrode type, diffusion geometry and chemical species. The files collected in this way are ready for fitting in DigiElch 7 out of the box. They have all the information the simulation requires along with the data. This optional module can be used with either the Standard or Professional version of DigiElch.


In neural Information Retrieval, ongoing research is directed towards improving the first retriever in ranking pipelines. Learning dense embeddings to conduct retrieval using efficient approximate nearest neighbors methods has proven to work well. Meanwhile, there has been a growing interest in learning sparse representations for documents and queries, that could inherit from the desirable properties of bag-of-words models such as the exact matching of terms and the efficiency of inverted indexes. In this work, we present a new first-stage ranker based on explicit sparsity regularization and a log-saturation effect on term weights, leading to highly sparse representations and competitive results with respect to state-of-the-art dense and sparse methods. Our approach is simple, trained end-to-end in a single stage. We also explore the trade-off between effectiveness and efficiency, by controlling the contribution of the sparsity regularization.


Huizhong Chen is a Ph.D candidate in the Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University, California. He received the B.A. and M.Eng. degrees in 2008 and 2009, both from the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK, with emphasis on Electrical and Information Sciences. His research interests are Computer Vision and Multimedia Systems. He worked on multiple research projects during graduate studies, including multidimensional data registration, object recognition and attribute learning, and multi-modal information retrieval. Huizhong is the recipient of the Kodak Fellowship, the Gibbons Fellowship, Sir Ian McFarlane Award, and a current Brown Fellow with the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation.