New Xbox by NSA partner Microsoft will watch you 24/7

Possible privacy violations by Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox One have come under new scrutiny since it was revealed Thursday that the tech giant was a crucial partner in an expansive Internet surveillance program conducted by the National Security Agency and involving Silicon Valley’s biggest players.

One of the console’s key features is the full integration of the Kinect, a motion sensing camera that allows users to play games, scroll through menus, and generally operate the Xbox just using hand gestures. Microsoft has touted the camera as the hallmark of a new era of interactivity in gaming.

What Microsoft has not promoted, however, is the fact that you will not be able to power on the console without first enabling the Kinect, designed to detect both heartbeats and eye movement. and positioning yourself in front of it.

Disturbingly, a recently published Microsoft patent reveals the Kinect has the capability to determine exactly when users are viewing ads broadcast by the Xbox through its eye movement tracking. Consistent ad viewers would be granted rewards, according to the patent. Read more >>

Robot Learns to Pour Beer by Predicting Your Future

Have you ever dreamed of owning a personal robot servant to pour your beers for you? The idea is now one step closer to reality.

Researchers at Cornell University have programmed a robot that can predict what you’re about to do and offer up a helping hand. Using a Microsoft Kinect sensor, the robot watches your body movements. Then, it accesses a video database of about 120 household activities — ranging from putting food in the microwave, eating, brushing teeth, making cereal, and yes, pouring booze — to predict what your actions will be a few seconds into the future. The robot can then make a decision about what you’re likely to do next, and what it can do to assist you in that task.

This robot is an improvement over previous technologies, says Ashutosh Saxena, one of the computer scientists at Cornell who programmed the robot, because previous models were looking at what people were doing in the past.

“Looking a little bit into the future helps a lot,” he says. While you can’t order this robot from Amazon yet, the code underlying the ‘bot’s predictive powers is available under an open source license. Some developers have already downloaded the code and asked how they could take it further, Saxena says. “The code is ready to go,” he says. Read more >>