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List of ARM Cortex-M development tools

This is a list of development tools for 32-bit ARM Cortex-M-based microcontrollers, which consists of Cortex-M0, Cortex-M0+, Cortex-M1, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4, Cortex-M7, Cortex-M23, Cortex-M33, Cortex-M35P, Cortex-M52, Cortex-M55, and Cortex-M85 cores. == Development toolchains == IDE, compiler, linker, debugger, flashing (in alphabetical order): Ac6 System Workbench for STM32 (based on Eclipse and the GNU GCC toolchain with direct support for all ST-provided evaluation boards, Eval, Discovery and Nucleo, debug with ST-LINK) ARM Development Studio 5 by ARM Ltd. Atmel Studio by Atmel (based on Visual Studio and GNU GCC Toolchain) Code Composer Studio by Texas Instruments CoIDE by CooCox (note - website dead since 2018) Crossware Development Suite for ARM by Crossware CrossWorks for ARM by Rowley Dave by Infineon. For XMC processors only. Includes project wizard, detailed register decoding and a code library still under development. DRT by SOMNIUM Technologies. Based on GCC toolchain and proprietary linker technology. Available as a plugin for Atmel Studio and an Eclipse-based IDE. EmBitz (formerly Em::Blocks) – free, fast (non-eclipse) IDE for ST-LINK (live data updates), OpenOCD, including GNU Tools for ARM and project wizards for ST, Atmel, EnergyMicro etc. Embeetle IDE - free, fast (non-eclipse) IDE. Works both on Linux and Windows. emIDE by emide – free Visual Studio Style IDE including GNU Tools for ARM GNU ARM Eclipse – A family of Eclipse CDT extensions and tools for GNU ARM development GNU Tools (aka GCC) for ARM Embedded Processors by ARM Ltd – free GCC for bare metal IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM by IAR Systems ICC by ImageCraft Keil MDK-ARM by Keil LPCXpresso by NXP (formerly Red Suite by Code Red Technologies) MikroC by mikroe – mikroC MULTI by Green Hills Software, for all Arm 7, 9, Cortex-M, Cortex-R, Cortex-A Ride and RKit for ARM by Raisonance SEGGER Embedded Studio for ARM by Segger. SEGGER Ozone by Segger. STM32CubeIDE by STMicroelectronics - Combines STCubeMX with TrueSTUDIO into a single Eclipse style package Sourcery CodeBench by Mentor Graphics TASKING VX-Toolset by Altium TrueSTUDIO by Atollic Visual Studio by Microsoft as IDE, with GNU Tools as compiler/linker – e.g. supported by VisualGDB VXM Design's Buildroot toolchain for Cortex. It integrates GNU toolchain, Nuttx, filesystem and debugger/flasher in one build. winIDEA/winIDEAOpen by iSYSTEM YAGARTO – free GCC (no longer supported) Code::Blocks (EPS edition) (debug with ST-LINK no GDB and no OpenOCD required) IDE for Arduino ARM boards Arduino – IDE for Atmel SAM3X (Arduino Due) Energia – Arduino IDE for Texas Instruments Tiva and CC3200 Notes: == Debugging tools == JTAG and/or SWD debug interface host adapters (in alphabetical order): Black Magic Probe by 1BitSquared. CMSIS-DAP by Mbed. Crossconnect by Rowley Associates. DSTREAM by ARM Holdings Green Hills Probe and SuperTrace Probe by Green Hills Software. iTAG by iSYSTEM. I-jet by IAR Systems. Jaguar by Crossware. J-Link by Segger Supports JTAG and SWD. Supports ARM7, ARM9, ARM11, Cortex-A, Cortex-M, Cortex-R, Renesas RX, Microchip PIC32. Eclipse plug-in available. Supports GDB, RDI, Ozone debuggers. J-Trace by Segger. Supports JTAG, SWD, and ETM trace on Cortex-M. JTAGjet by Signum. LPC-LINK by Embedded Artists (for NXP) This is only embedded on NXP LPCXpresso development boards. LPC-LINK 2 by NXP. This device can be reconfigured to support 3 different protocols: J-LINK by Segger, CMSIS-DAP by ARM, Redlink by Code Red. Multilink debug probes, Cyclone in-system programming/debugging interfaces, and a GDB Server plug-in for Eclipse-based ARM IDEs by PEmicro. OpenOCD open source GDB server supports a variety of JTAG probes OpenOCD Eclipse plug-in available in GNU ARM Eclipse Plug-ins. AK-OPENJTAG by Artekit (Open JTAG-compatible). AK-LINK by Artekit. PEEDI by RONETIX Debug Probe by Raspberry Pi. RLink by Raisonance. ST-LINK/V2 by STMicroelectronics The ST-LINK/V2 debugger embedded on STM32 Nucleo and Discovery development boards can be converted to SEGGER J-LINK protocol. TRACE32 Debugger and ETM/ITM Trace by Lauterbach. ULINK by Keil. Debugging tools and/or debugging plug-ins (in alphabetical order): Memfault Error Analysis for post mortem debugging Percepio Tracealyzer, RTOS trace visualizer (with Eclipse plugin). Segger SystemView, RTOS trace visualizer. == Real-time operating systems == Commonly referred to as RTOS: == C/C++ software libraries == The following are free C/C++ libraries: ARM Cortex libraries: Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS) libopencm3 (formerly called libopenstm32) libmaple for STM32F1 chips LPCOpen for NXP LPC chips Alternate C standard libraries: Bionic libc, dietlibc, EGLIBC, glibc, klibc, musl, Newlib, uClibc FAT file system libraries: EFSL, FatFs, Petit FatFs Fixed-point math libraries: libfixmath, fixedptc, FPMLib Encryption libraries: Comparison of TLS implementations wolfSSL == Non-C/C++ computer languages and software libraries ==
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Lucy–Hook coaddition method

The Lucy–Hook coaddition method is an image processing technique for combining sub-stepped astronomical image data onto a finer grid. The method allows the option of resolution and contrast enhancement or the choice of a conservative, re-convolved, output. Tests with very deep Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) imaging data of excellent quality show that these methods can be very effective and allow fine-scale features to be studied better than on the unprocessed images. The Lucy–Hook coaddition method is an extension of the standard Richardson–Lucy deconvolution iterative restoration method. For many purposes it may be more convenient to combine dithered datasets using the Drizzle method.
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Perceptual robotics

Perceptual robotics is an interdisciplinary science linking Robotics and Neuroscience. It investigates biologically motivated robot control strategies, concentrating on perceptual rather than cognitive processes and thereby sides with J. J. Gibson's view against the Poverty of the stimulus theory. As a working definition, the following quote from Chapter 64 by H. Bülthoff, C. Wallraven and M. Giese from The Springer Handbook of Robotics, edited by Bruno Siciliano and Oussama Khatib, published by Springer in 2007, could be used: In the following we will apply the term Perceptual Robotics to signify the design of robots based on principles that are derived from human perception on all three levels in the sense of Marr. This includes a realization in terms of specific neural circuits as well as the transfer of more abstract biologically-inspired strategies for the solution of relevant computational problems.
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Xara Designer Pro+

Xara Designer Pro+ is an image editing program incorporating photo editing and vector illustration tools created by British software company Xara. Xara Xtreme LX was an early open source version for Linux. The Windows version was previously sold under the names Xara Studio, Xara X and Xara Xtreme, and traces its origin in the late 1980s to a title called ArtWorks for the Acorn Archimedes line of computers using RISC OS. There is a pro version called Xara Designer Pro (formerly Xara Xtreme Pro). The current commercial version of Xara Photo & Graphic Designer runs only on Windows, although Xara documents can be edited in a web browser on any platform using the Xara Cloud service. Versions up to 4.x can be run on Linux using Wine. == History == ArtWorks, the predecessor of Xara Photo and Graphic Designer, was developed on Acorn Archimedes and Risc PC 32-bit RISC computers running RISC OS by Computer Concepts during the late 1980s. The first version, developed for Microsoft Windows was initially called Xara Studio. It was licensed to Corel Corporation before wide-scale public availability, and from 1995 to 2000 was released as CorelXARA. Corel ceded the licensing rights back to Xara in 2000. The first Xara X version released in 2000 by its original owner. The next version, Xara X¹, was released in 2004. Xara Xtreme was released in 2005. In November 2006, Xara Xtreme PRO (an enhanced version of Xara Xtreme) was released. Xara Xtreme 3.2 and Xtreme Pro 3.2 were released in May 2007. 3.2 Pro included Xara3D, and both versions had more robust typography. In April 2008, Xara Xtreme 4.0 was released. Xara Xtreme and Xara Xtreme Pro 5.1 were released in June 2009. Features included more text-area enhancements, content-aware scaling of bitmap images, improved file import and export, master-page (repeated) objects, an object gallery (replacing the layer gallery), website-creation tools, and multi-stage graduated transparency. In June 2010, Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 6 and Xara Designer Pro 6 were released. Xtreme was renamed Photo & Graphic Designer, and Xtreme Pro was renamed Designer Pro. In May 2011, Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 7 and Xara Designer Pro 7 were released. Features included "magic" photo erase, user interface improvements to docking galleries and snapping alignment, and (in Pro) new webpage and website-design features. In May 2012, Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013 and Xara Designer Pro X (v8) were released. Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 9 was released in May 2013. In July of that year, Xara Designer Pro X9 was released. Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 10 was released on 16 July 2014, and Xara Designer Pro X10 on 23 July. Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 11 was released on 29 June 2015, and Xara Designer Pro X11 was released the following month. In 2016, the delivery model was changed to an update service which can be renewed annually. Users are entitled to any updates released while the update service is active. The first update-service updates were in May 2016 for Xara Photo & Graphic Designer, and July 2016 for Xara Designer Pro X. == Features == Xara Photo & Graphic Designer is known for its usability and fast renderer. It provides a fully anti-aliased display, advanced gradient fill, and transparency tools. Among vector editors, Xara Photo & Graphic Designer is considered to be fairly easy to learn, with similarities to CorelDRAW and Inkscape in terms of interface. Alongside the vector illustration tools, Xara Photo & Graphic Designer also includes an integrated photo tool offering manual and automatic photo enhance, cropping, adjustment of brightness levels, red-eye fix, 'magic' erase, photo healing, color and background erase, panoramas and content aware resizing. Designer Pro includes a wider range of tools for other design tasks including the creation of web pages and websites, and text and page layout tools for DTP with the aim of providing a single solution for all graphic and web design tasks.
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Fabric Connect

Fabric Connect, in computer networking usage, is the name used by Extreme Networks to market an extended implementation of the IEEE 802.1aq and IEEE 802.1ah-2008 standards. The Fabric Connect technology was originally developed by the Enterprise Solutions R&D department within Nortel Networks. In 2009, Avaya, Inc acquired Nortel Networks Enterprise Business Solutions; this transaction included the Fabric Connect intellectual property together with all of the Ethernet Switching platforms that supported it. Subsequently, the Fabric Connect technology became part of the Extreme Networks portfolio by virtue of their 2017 purchase of the Avaya Networking business and assets. It was during the Avaya era that this technology was promoted as the lead element of the Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture (VENA). == Technologies == === Fabric Connect === Fabric Connect's provides network-wide, end-to-end, multi-layer virtualization. A network virtualization capability, based on an enhanced implementation of the IEEE 802.1aq Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) standard, Fabric Connect offers the ability to create a simplified network that can dynamically virtualize elements to efficiently provision and utilize resources, thus reducing the strain on the network and personnel. Extreme Networks base the Fabric Connect technology on the SPB standard, including support for RFC 6329, and have integrated IP Routing and IP Multicast support; this unified technology allows for the replacement of multiple conventional protocols such as Spanning Tree, RIP and/or OSPF, ECMP, and PIM. === Fabric Attach === An adjunct to the Fabric Connect technology, Fabric Attach allows network operators to extend network virtualization directly into conventional wiring closets (using existing non-Fabric Ethernet switches) and automate the provisioning of devices to their appropriate virtual network. This is particularly relevant for the mass of unattended network end-point that are now appearing, such as IP Phones, Wireless Access Points, and IP Cameras. Fabric Attach standardized protocols such as 802.1AB LLDP to exchange credentials and obtain provisioning information that allows "Client" Switches to be automatically re-configured on the fly with parameters that let Traffic Flows Map through to Fabric Connect Edge Switches (aka "Backbone Edge Bridge" in SPB definition) functioning as a Fabric Attach "Server" Switch. This method is described by an IETF "Internet Draft", pending further standardization activity. Fabric Attach is typically used to automate Wiring Closet connectivity, but has the potential to be extensible for use in the Data Center, with Virtual Machines being able to dynamically request VLAN/VSN (Virtual Service Network) assignment based upon application requirements. == Hardware products == === Virtual Services Platform 9000 Series === A range of modular chassis-based products, featuring a carrier-grade Linux operation system, and designed for high-performance deployment scenarios that need to scale to multiple terabits of switching capacity and support 10 and 40 gigabit Ethernet connections, and is designed eventually to support 100 gigabit Ethernet. === Virtual Services Platform 8000 Series === A compact form-factor platform delivering high-density 10/40 gigabit Ethernet connectivity, and targeted at mid-market through to mid-size enterprise core switch applications. === Virtual Services Platform 7000 Series === A range of high-end 10 gigabit Ethernet stackable switches that extend fabric-based networking to the data center top-of-rack. They support 40 gigabit Ethernet via the MDA Slot. === Virtual Services Platform 4000 Series === A range of high-end gigabit Ethernet stackable switches that extend Fabric-based networking to branch and metro locations. === Ethernet Routing Switch 5000 Series === A range of high-end gigabit Ethernet stackable switches that provides enterprise-class desktop features, including PoE, and offers 10 Gbit/s uplink connections. Each Switch supports up to 144 Gbit/s of virtual backplane capacity, delivering up to 1.152 Tbit/s for a system of eight, creating a virtual backplane through a stacking configuration. === Ethernet Routing Switch 4000 Series === A range of gigabit Ethernet stackable switches that provide enterprise-class desktop features, including PoE/PoE+, and offer 1/10 Gbit/s uplink connections. Each switch supports up to 48 Gbit/s of virtual backplane capacity, delivering up to 384 Gbit/s for a system of 8, creating a virtual backplane through a stacking configuration. === Ethernet Routing Switch 3500 Series === These entry-level gigabit Ethernet stackable switches provide enterprise-class desktop features, including PoE/PoE+, and 1 Gbit/s uplink connections.
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Prequel (mobile application)

Prequel, Inc. is an American technology company and mobile app developer known for developing the Prequel mobile application, which enables editing photos and videos with filters and effects generated using artificial intelligence. Prequel was founded in 2018 by Serge Aliseenko and Timur Khabirov, who currently serves as the company's CEO. It is headquartered in New York City. As of August 2022, it had been downloaded more than 100 million times. == History == In 2016, entrepreneur Timur Khabirov and investor Serge Aliseenko registered a US corporation named AIAR Labs Inc, which was developing AR solutions as an outsourced contractor. Of several proprietary products, Prequel was selected for beta-testing as a product focused on editing photos and videos. In 2018, Prequel was released on the Apple App Store. The launch cost $3 million USD, financed with the founders’ personal funds. The first release included approximately 10 filters for photos and the same amount of effects that augmented images with rose petals, rain and snow, VHS and film reel simulations, glitch, grain, sun puddles, and lomography. By June 2020, the app had also been released for Android. In 2021, Prequel founders Timur Khabirov and Serge Aliseenko launched a venture studio for startups working with artificial, computer vision, and AR-based visual art. In December 2022, Prequel reached the number 14 slot on the global rankings for Apple App Store’s Top Charts and the number 5 slot on the App Store’s U.S. charts. In March 2023, Prequel launched a new app called Artique, which is an AI-powered image editing app for businesses. Artique provides advertising and marketing graphic design using ready-made templates that users can customize, while giving suggestions and visual cues through artificial intelligence. Prequel was also one of the companies participating in discussions about artificial intelligence at SXSW 2023. == Features == Prequel describes its app as an "Aesthetic Pic Editor. The app uses artificial intelligence to create and edit content. Prequel can be used to touch up faces on images and videos and can also tie various decorative elements to certain points on the human body and face. Prequel filters include the "Cartoon" filter, which converts selfies into cartoon-style pictures. Other filters include Kidcore, Dust, Grain, Fisheye, Retro Style, Miami, Disco, and VHS-style filters, as well as the ability to create Renaissance-style pictures. Prequel also gives users the ability to apply color correction tools and to make moving images with 3D effects out of 2D images. Prequel allows users to take photos and videos directly through the app and apply filters and effects in real time. The app also comes with manual editing options for photos, such as adjusting the brightness and/or exposure and cropping photos, as well as an option to automatically apply adjustments. The Prequel app uses the Core ML, MNN, and TFLight frameworks to work with its neural networks. Some AI solutions are launched server-side, and some on the user's mobile device. A resulting photo or video edited with the app is called "a prequel." The app daily generates over 2 million such prequels, which are published by users in Instagram, TikTok, and other social media. As of 2022, the app has more than 800 filters and effects, along with video templates and support for GIFs and stickers. Prequel is free-to-use, but has a premium version that gives users access to more effects, filters, and beauty tools. Since its launch in 2018, Prequel has been downloaded more than 100 million times.
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Objective vision

Objective Vision (Object Oriented Visionary) is a project mainly aimed at real-time computer vision and simulation vision of living creatures. it has three sections containing an open-source library of programming functions for using inside the projects, Virtual laboratory for scholars to check the application of functions directly and by command-line code for external and instant access, and the research section consists of paperwork and libraries to expand the scientific prove of works. == Background == The process has been used in the OVC libraries is as same as what's happening when living see a picture, and it's designed to give the researchers to experience the brain's visual cortex most close simulation for picture perception. The OVC was designed to work as a simulated visual cortex that has a critical job in processing and classify the objects to make it easier to work with pictures and graphical perception and processing. The human brain is much more aware of how it solves complex problems such as playing chess or solving algebra equations, which is why computer programmers have had so much success building machines that emulate this type of activity. but when the whole process is still a riddle that how the entities visionary system works. The project was simulated the visionary system by how it starts to convert the signals to image(actually the edges and colors) and then recognizing the shapes to find a relation between brain's information and image. The Objective Visionary system actually is concentrating on the separable sections, this separation gives the application visionary system the excellence processing result, because with this method the system do not waste much time on processing non significant sections and signals. this operation in the Objective Vision project called objective processing and because the O.V. mission is focused on human visionary simulation, so the developer refers with Objective Vision. == History == Objective-Vision is a Human (Natural) Visionary simulation Project developed by Michael Bidollahkhany. Following an explosion of interest during the 21st century were characterized by the maturing of the field and the significant growth of active applications; simulation of visionary systems, visionary based autonomous vehicle guidance, medical imaging (2D and 3D) and automatic surveillance are the most rapidly developing areas. This progress can be seen in an increasing number of software and hardware products on the market, as well as in a number of digital image processing software and APIs and also machine vision courses offered at universities worldwide. Therefore, the OVC project has been released as a research software project in 2016. One of important parts of this project was O.V.C. (Objective Vision Class library), that was designed to able companies and scientists to use the brain's most likely functionalities as visionary libraries to simplify and accelerate the image processing algorithms developments. The project started under MIT copyright license, but since 2018 the project continued as classified based on sponsors opinion. == The Algorithm == As developers claimed the algorithm used in the class library and developer's kit of project has been developed based on natural visionary system, and the functionalities containing image processing, optimization and labeling etc. are mostly upgraded and near techniques. Suppose that we've a picture of a jungle, or somewhere else, with this library developer will be able to manipulate not only the pixel of images for data extraction, but automatically based on which algorithm is used and image quality, he can manipulate directly a list of objects, same pixels and every data project needs to have, said the developer in his lecture answering how the algorithm works. === Viewpoint === For long times digital image processing and storing, was actually by processing just pixels; this Project tries to present a new kind of image processing and even storing, "objective vision" or "object-oriented visionary" is called. This project officially launched in May 2016, with the aim of making more adaptation between Computer Vision (Include Visionary, Digital image processing, discernment and even Perception) and Human Visual System; about development of the project: "...so we decided to research on Human Vision System, besides we worked on Artificial Retinal image processing and new visionary optimization unit(Presented at Istanbul Technical University Conference(Turkey 2015-2016)) and grew our research to Visionary CORTEX of Brain", Michael Bidollahkhany said. == Applications == The OVC application areas include: 2D and 3D feature toolkits Egomotion estimation Human–computer interaction (HCI) Mobile robotics Motion understanding Object identification Segmentation and recognition Stereopsis stereo vision: depth perception from two cameras Structure from motion (SFM) Motion tracking == Programming language == In first initial release of Objective Visionary Project the algorithm has been written in C++ and C#, and the virtual laboratory has been developed in C# and Delphi. Based on developers last lecture since the second release the complete algorithm has been re-written in C# based on .Net Core 1.0 to make it easier to work on different operating systems.
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BabyCenter

BabyCenter is an online media company based in San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles that provides information on conception, pregnancy, birth, and early childhood development for parents and expecting parents. BabyCenter operates 8 country and region specific properties including websites, apps, emails, print publications, and an online community where parents can connect on a variety of topics. The visitors of website and the users of the app can sign up for free weekly email newsletters that guide them through pregnancy and their child's development. In addition to publishing detailed, medically reviewed information about pregnancy and parenting, BabyCenter, under its Mission Motherhood initiative, ran numerous social programs and has participated in public health initiatives in partnership with hospitals, healthcare agencies, nonprofits, NGOs, and government agencies to provide pregnancy and parenting advice. It also annually publishes the most popular baby names. BabyCenter LLC is part of the Everyday Health Group, a division of Ziff Davis. == History == BabyCenter was founded in October 1997 by Stanford University MBA graduates Matt Glickman and Mark Selcow, who recognized a need for information about pregnancy and parenting on the internet. BabyCenter was initially funded through $13.5 million in startup capital funding from venture capital firms, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Intel, and Trinity Ventures. The funds were used to open the BabyCenter Store in October 1998. In the early years of its operation, BabyCenter offered multiple resources and services for parents, including a website that provided medically reviewed information and guidance to new and expectant parents on such topics as fertility, labor, and childcare; a weekly email for pregnant women tailored to their week of pregnancy (based on their pregnancy due date); and community groups and chat rooms for pregnant couples and parents to discuss pregnancy and child-rearing strategies. The site grew quickly, and by early 1999 had 175 employees and an annual revenue of $35 million. In April of that year, the two founders sold BabyCenter to another website, eToys.com, for $190 million in stock. Twenty-three months later, in 2001, shortly before declaring bankruptcy, eToys sold the site to Johnson & Johnson for $10 million. During the eToys ownership, BabyCenter launched its first international E-commerce site in the UK during the spring of 2000. Starting in 2005, BabyCenter launched an expansion plan, extending its global network to Australia, Canada and other countries, staffing each outpost with local editors. In 2007, BabyCenter debuted a Mandarin-language site in China, initiated operations in India, launched a Spanish language website, and introduced its first mobile site. BabyCenter released My Pregnancy Today, its first mobile app, to Apple's App Store in August 2010 and to the Android market in April 2011. The app provided daily information, nutrition tips, advice relevant to the user's week of pregnancy, and 3-D animated videos showcasing a baby's development in utero. The My Pregnancy app was joined by a My Baby Today app in October 2011. In 2015, BabyCenter released Mom Feed, its first mobile app for parents of toddlers and older children (ages 1 to 8). Mom Feed offered personalized, stage-based information as well as content from the BabyCenter Community and Blog in a real-time stream. In 2016, BabyCenter launched its web-based Baby Names Finder. In 2018, Mom Feed was discontinued and BabyCenter replaced that experience with a separate Child Health content area on its website. Also in 2018, BabyCenter launched its mobile baby name generator, the Baby Names app, which, like the web-based Baby Names Finder, leverages data from hundreds of thousands of parents that culminates in its annual most popular Baby Names Report. In 2019, Johnson & Johnson sold Baby Center to Everyday Health Group, a division of New York-based parent company of Ziff Davis, Inc. Neither side disclosed terms of the deal. == Popular research == BabyCenter's most popular baby names is released annually and often cited by the media. In March 2024, BabyCenter did a review of the app Temu and said that the website has found products that have been recalled, could be counterfeit or circumvent U.S. safety standards and features that are important in preventing issues like choking. In 2025, BabyCenter released a report about the cost of raising a newborn baby in the first year. == Content and products == === Websites === BabyCenter has 8 country and region-specific websites around the world, including sites for the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, India, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Latin America. Users can find parenting and pregnancy advice in seven languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French, German, and Hindi BabyCenter content for each country- or region-specific site is written by an editorial team based in that country or region. Medical and health content for each site is reviewed by a medical advisory board based there and adheres to that country or region's medical standards. For example, the U.S. site works with and follows the recommendations of such U.S. medical authorities as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Congress of Obstetrics & Gynecology and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. BabyCenter regularly conducts research and provides thought leadership on pregnancy and parenting topics, popularly cited by major media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Insider, MarketWatch, Axios. === Community, blogs and social === From its earliest days, BabyCenter has had a community area that allows people to join a group of parents with children born in the same month, known as a Birth Club. BabyCenter launched a blog called Momformation in 2007. Eventually, the name was changed to BabyCenter Blog. In April 2021, the BabyCenter Community was identified in a research article within the journal PLOS Computational Biology as facilitating "unobstructed communication" between parents, which avoids the "strong echo chamber phenomena" that can foster and perpetuate vaccine misinformation. === My Pregnancy and Baby Today App === The app is available in six languages, although not all features are supported for every market. Initially the apps only featured pregnancy articles that could be found on the BabyCenter website, but over the years the feature set has expanded to include a growing list of app-specific tools such as weekly fetal development information, a kick tracker, a birth plan worksheet, a contraction timer, a baby growth tracker, a photo journal for pregnant women to record their pregnancy bellies, and a photo journal for documenting a baby's first year. === Mission Motherhood™ === BabyCenter was a cofounder of the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA), a public-private partnership between USAID, Johnson & Johnson, the UN Foundation, and BabyCenter from 2011 to-to 2015. The MAMA program sparked the creation of MomConnect, an initiative of the South African Department of Health for which BabyCenter developed SMS messages with health information about pregnancy and a child's first year of life. BabyCenter helped develop similar messages for mMitra, a voice messaging program in India. A research article in the Maternal and Child Health Journal stated the mMitra program offered strong evidence "that tailored mobile phone voice messages can improve key infant care knowledge and practices that lead to improved infant health outcomes in low-resource settings. BabyCenter's Mission Motherhood Messages were available to qualifying organizations on the BabyCenter website. BabyCenter contributed websites for Free Basics. These websites featured age and stage-based pregnancy and baby articles targeted to low-income, lower-education women who would not otherwise have access to health information. Content developed for this program was also used to support a UNICEF SMS program during the 2016 Zika outbreak. == Awards and recognition == In 1998, BabyCenter won a Webby Award for Best Home Site. Since then, it has been nominated for a Webby Award 19 times and won either a Webby or a People's Choice Webby Award 12 times – including a People's Voice win in 2021 for Lifestyle websites and mobile sites. In 2002, it won Service Journalism award from Online Journalism Awards (OJA). In 2015, BabyCenter won five Digital Health Awards for content about autism in children. In 2016, BabyCenter won seven Digital Health Awards: four for videos about the aches and pains of pregnancy, baby sleep, and the walking milestone in child development; two for articles about baby sleep training and sleep apnea in babies; and one for the BabyCenter mobile app My Pregnancy & Baby Today. In 2021, Forbes Health chose My Pregnancy & Baby Today as the best pregnancy app of 2021, and Women's Health identified it
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Aarogya Setu

Aarogya Setu (lit. 'The bridge to health') is an Indian COVID-19 "contact tracing, syndromic mapping and self-assessment" digital service, primarily a mobile app, developed by the National Informatics Centre under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The app reached more than 100 million installs in 40 days. On 26 May, amid growing privacy and security concerns, the source code of the app was made public. == Full view == The stated purpose of this app is to spread awareness of COVID-19 and to connect essential COVID-19-related health services to the people of India. This app augments the initiatives of the Department of Health to contain COVID-19 and shares best practices and advisories. It is a tracking app which uses the smartphone's GPS and Bluetooth features to track COVID-19 cases. The app is available for Android and iOS mobile operating systems. With Bluetooth, it tries to determine the risk if one has been near (within six feet of) a COVID-19-infected person, by scanning through a database of known cases across India. Using location information, it determines whether the location one is in belongs to one of the infected areas based on the data available. This app is an updated version of an earlier app called Corona Kavach (now discontinued) which was released earlier by the Government of India. == Features and tools == Aarogya Setu has four sections: User Status (tells the risk of getting COVID-19 for the user) Self Assess (helps the users identify COVID-19 symptoms and their risk profile) COVID-19 Updates (gives updates on local and national COVID-19 cases) E-pass integration (if applied for E-pass, it will be available) See Recent Contacts option (allows the users to assess the risk level of their Bluetooth contacts) It tells how many COVID-19 positive cases are likely in a radius of 500 m, 1 km, 2 km, 5 km and 10 km from the user. The app is built on a platform that can provide an application programming interface (API) so that other computer programs, mobile applications, and web services can make use of the features and data available in Aarogya Setu. == Response == Aarogya Setu crossed five million downloads within three days of its launch, making it one of the most popular government apps in India. It became the world's fastest-growing mobile app, beating Pokémon Go, with more than 50 million installs 13 days after launching in India on 2 April 2020. It reached 100 million installs by 13 May 2020, that is in 40 days since its launch. In an order on 29 April 2020 the central government made it mandatory for all employees to download the app and use it – "Before starting for office, they must review their status on Aarogya Setu and commute only when the app shows safe or low risk". The Union Home Ministry also said that the application is mandatory for all living in the COVID-19 containment zone. The government gave the announcement along with the nationwide lockdown extension by two weeks from the 4 May with certain relaxations. On 21 May 2020, the Airport Authority of India issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) stating that all departing passengers must compulsorily be registered with the Aarogya Setu app. It added that the app would not be mandatory for children below 14 years. However, the next day, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri clarified that the app would not be mandatory for any passengers. On 26 May 2020, the Aarogya Setu app code was made open to developers across the globe to help other countries manage contact tracing in their fight against COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2021, Co-WIN portal was integrated with the app. This allowed users to schedule an appointment through the app for COVID-19 vaccine by registering their phone number and providing relevant documents. == Effectiveness == NITI Aayog CEO revealed that "the app has been able to identify more than 3,000 hotspots in 3–17 days ahead of time." However, users and experts in India and around the world say the app raises huge data security concerns. The app collects name, number, gender, travel history, and uses a phone's Bluetooth and location data to let users know if they have been near a person with COVID-19 by scanning a database of known cases of infection, and also share it with the government simultaneously. This is the major area of concern as the app's constant access to a phone's Bluetooth imposes a form of security threat. But it stood to clarify itself that the informations received are not going to be made public. Amidst all these, the app hits a record of about one-hundred million downloads. == Reception == Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Congress party, termed the Aarogya Setu application a "sophisticated surveillance system" after the government announced that downloading the app would be mandatory for both government and private employees. Following this, others raised the same concerns about the Aarogya Setu app. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) responded to these concerns by asserting that Gandhi's claims were false, and that the app was being appreciated internationally. On 5 May, French ethical hacker Robert Baptiste, who goes by the name Elliot Alderson on Twitter, claimed that there were security issues with the app. The Indian government, as well as the app developers, responded to this claim by thanking the hacker for his attention, but dismissed his concerns. The developers of the app stated that the fetching of location data is a documented feature of the app, rather than a flaw, since the app is designed to track the distribution of the virus-infected population. They also asserted that no personal information of any user has been proven to be at risk. On 6 May, Robert Baptiste tweeted that security vulnerabilities in Aarogya Setu allowed hackers to "know who is infected, unwell, [or] made a self assessment in the area of his choice". He also gave details of how many people were unwell and infected at the Prime Minister's Office, the Indian Parliament and the Home Office. The Economic Times pointed out that a clause in the app's Terms and Conditions stated that the user "agrees and acknowledges that the Government of India will not be liable for ... any unauthorised access to your information or modification thereof". In response, several software developers called for the source code to be made public. On 12 May, former Supreme Court Judge Justice B.N. Srikrishna termed the government's push mandating the use of Aarogya Setu app "utterly illegal". He said so far it is not backed by any law and questioned "under what law, government is mandating it on anyone". MIT Technology Review gave 2 out of 5 stars to Aarogya Setu app after analyzing the COVID contact tracing apps launched in 25 countries. The app got stars only for the policy which suggests that data collected is deleted after a period of time and that the data collection, as far as user inputs go, is minimal. It also highlighted that India is the only democracy making its app mandatory for millions of people. The rating was further downgraded from 2 to 1 for collecting more information than the app needs to function. Following this, the MeitY made the source code of the Android app public on GitHub on 26 May, which will be followed by iOS and API documentation. Further, the Government has also launched a "bug bounty program". This was done to "promote transparency and ensure security and integrity of the app". However, experts stated that the server-side code had not yet been publicly released, which meant that public opinion on security and privacy was yet to be completely assuaged. Following this, ZDNet noted that the source code seemed to confirm the government's claim that user location data, if collected, would be anonymised and would be deleted after 45 days, or 60 days for high-risk individuals.
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Oculus Medium

Oculus Medium is a digital sculpting software that works with virtual reality headsets and 6DoF motion controllers. It is used to create and paint digital sculptures. Medium works only on Oculus Rift. It was released on December 5, 2016, following with a major update in 2018 introducing new features and a revamped UI. On December 9, 2019, Oculus Medium was acquired by Adobe and re-named to "Medium by Adobe".
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Tensor operator

In pure and applied mathematics, quantum mechanics and computer graphics, a tensor operator generalizes the notion of operators which are scalars and vectors. A special class of these are spherical tensor operators which apply the notion of the spherical basis and spherical harmonics. The spherical basis closely relates to the description of angular momentum in quantum mechanics and spherical harmonic functions. The coordinate-free generalization of a tensor operator is known as a representation operator. == The general notion of scalar, vector, and tensor operators == In quantum mechanics, physical observables that are scalars, vectors, and tensors, must be represented by scalar, vector, and tensor operators, respectively. Whether something is a scalar, vector, or tensor depends on how it is viewed by two observers whose coordinate frames are related to each other by a rotation. Alternatively, one may ask how, for a single observer, a physical quantity transforms if the state of the system is rotated. Consider, for example, a system consisting of a molecule of mass M {\displaystyle M} , traveling with a definite center of mass momentum, p z ^ {\displaystyle p{\mathbf {\hat {z}} }} , in the z {\displaystyle z} direction. If we rotate the system by 90 ∘ {\displaystyle 90^{\circ }} about the y {\displaystyle y} axis, the momentum will change to p x ^ {\displaystyle p{\mathbf {\hat {x}} }} , which is in the x {\displaystyle x} direction. The center-of-mass kinetic energy of the molecule will, however, be unchanged at p 2 / 2 M {\displaystyle p^{2}/2M} . The kinetic energy is a scalar and the momentum is a vector, and these two quantities must be represented by a scalar and a vector operator, respectively. By the latter in particular, we mean an operator whose expected values in the initial and the rotated states are p z ^ {\displaystyle p{\mathbf {\hat {z}} }} and p x ^ {\displaystyle p{\mathbf {\hat {x}} }} . The kinetic energy on the other hand must be represented by a scalar operator, whose expected value must be the same in the initial and the rotated states. In the same way, tensor quantities must be represented by tensor operators. An example of a tensor quantity (of rank two) is the electrical quadrupole moment of the above molecule. Likewise, the octupole and hexadecapole moments would be tensors of rank three and four, respectively. Other examples of scalar operators are the total energy operator (more commonly called the Hamiltonian), the potential energy, and the dipole-dipole interaction energy of two atoms. Examples of vector operators are the momentum, the position, the orbital angular momentum, L {\displaystyle {\mathbf {L} }} , and the spin angular momentum, S {\displaystyle {\mathbf {S} }} . (Fine print: Angular momentum is a vector as far as rotations are concerned, but unlike position or momentum it does not change sign under space inversion, and when one wishes to provide this information, it is said to be a pseudovector.) Scalar, vector and tensor operators can also be formed by products of operators. For example, the scalar product L ⋅ S {\displaystyle {\mathbf {L} }\cdot {\mathbf {S} }} of the two vector operators, L {\displaystyle {\mathbf {L} }} and S {\displaystyle {\mathbf {S} }} , is a scalar operator, which figures prominently in discussions of the spin–orbit interaction. Similarly, the quadrupole moment tensor of our example molecule has the nine components Q i j = ∑ α q α ( 3 r α , i r α , j − r α 2 δ i j ) . {\displaystyle Q_{ij}=\sum _{\alpha }q_{\alpha }\left(3r_{\alpha ,i}r_{\alpha ,j}-r_{\alpha }^{2}\delta _{ij}\right).} Here, the indices i {\displaystyle i} and j {\displaystyle j} can independently take on the values 1, 2, and 3 (or x {\displaystyle x} , y {\displaystyle y} , and z {\displaystyle z} ) corresponding to the three Cartesian axes, the index α {\displaystyle \alpha } runs over all particles (electrons and nuclei) in the molecule, q α {\displaystyle q_{\alpha }} is the charge on particle α {\displaystyle \alpha } , and r α , i {\displaystyle r_{\alpha ,i}} is the i {\displaystyle i} -th component of the position of this particle. Each term in the sum is a tensor operator. In particular, the nine products r α , i r α , j {\displaystyle r_{\alpha ,i}r_{\alpha ,j}} together form a second rank tensor, formed by taking the outer product of the vector operator r α {\displaystyle {\mathbf {r} }_{\alpha }} with itself. == Rotations of quantum states == === Quantum rotation operator === The rotation operator about the unit vector n (defining the axis of rotation) through angle θ is U [ R ( θ , n ^ ) ] = exp ⁡ ( − i θ ℏ n ^ ⋅ J ) {\displaystyle U[R(\theta ,{\hat {\mathbf {n} }})]=\exp \left(-{\frac {i\theta }{\hbar }}{\hat {\mathbf {n} }}\cdot \mathbf {J} \right)} where J = (Jx, Jy, Jz) are the rotation generators (also the angular momentum matrices): J x = ℏ 2 ( 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 ) J y = ℏ 2 ( 0 i 0 − i 0 i 0 − i 0 ) J z = ℏ ( − 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 ) {\displaystyle J_{x}={\frac {\hbar }{\sqrt {2}}}{\begin{pmatrix}0&1&0\\1&0&1\\0&1&0\end{pmatrix}}\,\quad J_{y}={\frac {\hbar }{\sqrt {2}}}{\begin{pmatrix}0&i&0\\-i&0&i\\0&-i&0\end{pmatrix}}\,\quad J_{z}=\hbar {\begin{pmatrix}-1&0&0\\0&0&0\\0&0&1\end{pmatrix}}} and let R ^ = R ^ ( θ , n ^ ) {\displaystyle {\widehat {R}}={\widehat {R}}(\theta ,{\hat {\mathbf {n} }})} be a rotation matrix. According to the Rodrigues' rotation formula, the rotation operator then amounts to U [ R ( θ , n ^ ) ] = 1 1 − i sin ⁡ θ ℏ n ^ ⋅ J − 1 − cos ⁡ θ ℏ 2 ( n ^ ⋅ J ) 2 . {\displaystyle U[R(\theta ,{\hat {\mathbf {n} }})]=1\!\!1-{\frac {i\sin \theta }{\hbar }}{\hat {\mathbf {n} }}\cdot \mathbf {J} -{\frac {1-\cos \theta }{\hbar ^{2}}}({\hat {\mathbf {n} }}\cdot \mathbf {J} )^{2}.} An operator Ω ^ {\displaystyle {\widehat {\Omega }}} is invariant under a unitary transformation U if Ω ^ = U † Ω ^ U ; {\displaystyle {\widehat {\Omega }}={U}^{\dagger }{\widehat {\Omega }}U;} in this case for the rotation U ^ ( R ) {\displaystyle {\widehat {U}}(R)} , Ω ^ = U ( R ) † Ω ^ U ( R ) = exp ⁡ ( i θ ℏ n ^ ⋅ J ) Ω ^ exp ⁡ ( − i θ ℏ n ^ ⋅ J ) . {\displaystyle {\widehat {\Omega }}={U(R)}^{\dagger }{\widehat {\Omega }}U(R)=\exp \left({\frac {i\theta }{\hbar }}{\hat {\mathbf {n} }}\cdot \mathbf {J} \right){\widehat {\Omega }}\exp \left(-{\frac {i\theta }{\hbar }}{\hat {\mathbf {n} }}\cdot \mathbf {J} \right).} === Angular momentum eigenkets === The orthonormal basis set for total angular momentum is | j , m ⟩ {\displaystyle |j,m\rangle } , where j is the total angular momentum quantum number and m is the magnetic angular momentum quantum number, which takes values −j, −j + 1, ..., j − 1, j. A general state within the j subspace | ψ ⟩ = ∑ m c j m | j , m ⟩ {\displaystyle |\psi \rangle =\sum _{m}c_{jm}|j,m\rangle } rotates to a new state by: | ψ ¯ ⟩ = U ( R ) | ψ ⟩ = ∑ m c j m U ( R ) | j , m ⟩ {\displaystyle |{\bar {\psi }}\rangle =U(R)|\psi \rangle =\sum _{m}c_{jm}U(R)|j,m\rangle } Using the completeness condition: I = ∑ m ′ | j , m ′ ⟩ ⟨ j , m ′ | {\displaystyle I=\sum _{m'}|j,m'\rangle \langle j,m'|} we have | ψ ¯ ⟩ = I U ( R ) | ψ ⟩ = ∑ m m ′ c j m | j , m ′ ⟩ ⟨ j , m ′ | U ( R ) | j , m ⟩ {\displaystyle |{\bar {\psi }}\rangle =IU(R)|\psi \rangle =\sum _{mm'}c_{jm}|j,m'\rangle \langle j,m'|U(R)|j,m\rangle } Introducing the Wigner D matrix elements: D ( R ) m ′ m ( j ) = ⟨ j , m ′ | U ( R ) | j , m ⟩ {\displaystyle {D(R)}_{m'm}^{(j)}=\langle j,m'|U(R)|j,m\rangle } gives the matrix multiplication: | ψ ¯ ⟩ = ∑ m m ′ c j m D m ′ m ( j ) | j , m ′ ⟩ ⇒ | ψ ¯ ⟩ = D ( j ) | ψ ⟩ {\displaystyle |{\bar {\psi }}\rangle =\sum _{mm'}c_{jm}D_{m'm}^{(j)}|j,m'\rangle \quad \Rightarrow \quad |{\bar {\psi }}\rangle =D^{(j)}|\psi \rangle } For one basis ket: | j , m ¯ ⟩ = ∑ m ′ D ( R ) m ′ m ( j ) | j , m ′ ⟩ {\displaystyle |{\overline {j,m}}\rangle =\sum _{m'}{D(R)}_{m'm}^{(j)}|j,m'\rangle } For the case of orbital angular momentum, the eigenstates | ℓ , m ⟩ {\displaystyle |\ell ,m\rangle } of the orbital angular momentum operator L and solutions of Laplace's equation on a 3d sphere are spherical harmonics: Y ℓ m ( θ , ϕ ) = ⟨ θ , ϕ | ℓ , m ⟩ = ( 2 ℓ + 1 ) 4 π ( ℓ − m ) ! ( ℓ + m ) ! P ℓ m ( cos ⁡ θ ) e i m ϕ {\displaystyle Y_{\ell }^{m}(\theta ,\phi )=\langle \theta ,\phi |\ell ,m\rangle ={\sqrt {{(2\ell +1) \over 4\pi }{(\ell -m)! \over (\ell +m)!}}}\,P_{\ell }^{m}(\cos {\theta })\,e^{im\phi }} where Pℓm is an associated Legendre polynomial, ℓ is the orbital angular momentum quantum number, and m is the orbital magnetic quantum number which takes the values −ℓ, −ℓ + 1, ... ℓ − 1, ℓ The formalism of spherical harmonics have wide applications in applied mathematics, and are closely related to the formalism of spherical tensors, as shown below. Spherical harmonics are functions of the polar and azimuthal angles, ϕ and θ respectively, which can be conveniently collected into a unit vector n(θ, ϕ) pointing in the direction of those angles, in the Cartesian basis it is: n ^ ( θ , ϕ ) = cos ⁡ ϕ sin ⁡ θ e x + s
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Afghan Girls Robotics Team

The Afghan Girls Robotics Team, also known as the Afghan Dreamers, is an all-girl robotics team from Herat, Afghanistan, founded through the Digital Citizen Fund (DCF) in 2017 by Roya Mahboob and Alireza Mehraban. It is made up of girls between ages 12 and 18 and their mentors. Several members of the team were relocated to Qatar and Mexico by humanitarian and tech entrepreneur Sarah Porter following the fall of Kabul in August 2021. A documentary film featuring members of the team, titled Afghan Dreamers, was released by MTV Documentary Films in 2023. == Origins == The Afghan Girls Robotics Team was co-founded in 2017 by Roya Mahboob, who is their coach, mentor and sponsor, and founder of the Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), which is the parent organization for the team. Dean Kamen was planning a 2017 competition in the United States and had recruited Mahboob to form a team from Afghanistan. Out of 150 girls, 12 were selected for the first team. Before parts were sent by Kamen, they trained in the basement of the home of Mahboob's parents, with scrap metal and without safety equipment under the guidance of their coach, Mahboob's brother Alireza Mehraban, who is also a co-founder of the team. == 2017 and 2018 == In 2017, six members of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team traveled to the United States to participate in the international FIRST Global Challenge robotics competition. Their visas were rejected twice after they made two journeys from Herat to Kabul through Taliban-controlled areas, before officials in the United States government intervened to allow them to enter the United States. Customs officials also detained their robotics kits, which left them two weeks to construct their robot, unlike some teams that had more time. They were awarded a Silver medal for Courageous Achievement. One week after they returned home from the competition, the father of team captain Fatemah Qaderyan, Mohammad Asif Qaderyan, was killed in a suicide bombing. After their United States visas expired, the team participated in competitions in Estonia and Istanbul. Three of the 12 members participated in the 2017 Entrepreneurial Challenge at the Robotex festival in Estonia, and won the competition for their solar-powered robot designed to assist farmers. In 2018, the team trained in Canada, continued to travel in the United States for months and participate in competitions. == 2019 == The Afghan Girls Robotics team had aspirations to develop a science and technology school for girls in Afghanistan. Roya Mahboob interfaced with the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the School of Architecture, and the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies Yale University to design the infrastructure for what they named The Dreamer Institute. == 2020 == In March 2020, the governor of Herat at the time, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan and a scarcity of ventilators, sought help with the design of low-cost ventilators, and the Afghan Girls Robotics Team was one of six teams contacted by the government. Using a design from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and with guidance from MIT engineers and Douglas Chin, a surgeon in California, the team developed a prototype with Toyota Corolla parts and a chain drive from a Honda motorcycle. UNICEF also supported the team with the acquisition of necessary parts during the three months they spent building the prototype that was completed in July 2020. Their design costs around $500 compared to $50,000 for a ventilator. In December 2020, Minister of Industry and Commerce Nizar Ahmad Ghoryani donated funding and obtained land for a factory to produce the ventilators. Under the direction of their mentor Roya Mahboob, the Afghan Dreamers also designed a UVC Robot for sanitization, and a Spray Robot for disinfection, both of which were approved by the Ministry of Health for production. == 2021 == In early August 2021, Somaya Faruqi, former captain of the team, was quoted by Public Radio International about the future of Afghanistan, stating, "We don’t support any group over another but for us what’s important is that we be able to continue our work. Women in Afghanistan have made a lot of progress over the past two decades and this progress must be respected." On August 17, 2021, the Afghan Girls Robotics Team and their coaches were reported to be attempting to evacuate, but unable to obtain a flight out of Afghanistan, and a lawyer appealed to Canada for assistance regarding the evacuation of the team members. As of August 19, 2021, nine members of the team and their coaches had evacuated to Qatar. The founder of the team, Roya Mahboob, and DCF board member, Elizabeth Schaeffer Brown, were previously in contact with the Qatari government to assist the team members in their evacuation from Afghanistan. By August 25, 2021, some members arrived in Mexico. Saghar, a team member who evacuated to Mexico, said, "We wanted to continue the path that we started to continue to go for our achievements and to go for having our dreams through reality. So that's why we decided to leave Afghanistan and go for somewhere safe" in an interview with The Associated Press. The members who have left Afghanistan participated in an online robotics competition in September and plan to continue their education. A documentary film titled Afghan Dreamers, produced by Beth Murphy and directed by David Greenwald, was in post-production when the team began to evacuate. == 2022 == The Afghan Dreamers were involved in a training program at the Texas A&M University at Qatar’s STEM Hub. == 2023 == The Afghan Girls Robotics Team had a booth at the 5th UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries, where they displayed some of the robots the team had constructed. == Afghan Dreamers documentary == The Afghan Dreamers documentary from MTV Documentary Films premiered in May 2023 on Paramount+. The film was directed by David Greenwald and produced by David Cowan and Beth Murphy. In a review for Screen Daily, Wendy Ide wrote, "This film, with its likeable cast of girl nerds and positive message, should enjoy a warm reception on the festival circuit, and will be of particular interest to events seeking to showcase women's stories from around the world. It also serves as a timely cautionary tale – a case study on just how quickly the rights and the opportunities of women can be curtailed, at the behest of the men in power." == Honors and awards == 2017 Silver medal for Courageous Achievement at the FIRST Global Challenge, science and technology 2017 Benefiting Humanity in AI Award at World Summit AI 2017 Winner, Entrepreneurship Challenge at Robotex in Estonia 2018 Permission to Dream Award, Raw Film Festival 2018 Conrad Innovation Challenge, Raw Film Festival 2018 Rookie All Star – District Championship, Canada 2018 Asia Game Changer Award Honoree 2019 Inspiring in Engineering Award – FIRST Detroit World Championship 2019 Asia Game Changer Award of California 2019 Safety Award – FIRST Global, Dubai 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2022 World Championships, Genoa, Switzerland
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Verbot

The Verbot (short for Verbal-Robot) was a chatbot program and artificial intelligence software development kit (SDK) designed for Windows and web platforms. == Early beginning == The origin of verbot traces back to Michael Mauldin's research during his time as a graduate student and post-doctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. The creative foundation also stems from Peter Plantec's work in personality psychology and art direction. === Historic outline === In 1994, Michael Loren Mauldin, founder of Lycos, Inc., developed a prototype chatbot, Julia, which competed in the internationally known Turing test, for the coveted Loebner Prize. The Turing test matches computer scientist judges against machines to see if they can distinguish a computer from a real human. Julia was refined and developed, and in 1997, Dr. Mauldin and Peter Plantec, a clinical psychologist and animator, formed Virtual Personalities, Inc. (now Conversive, Inc.) in order to create a virtual human interface that would incorporate real-time animation as well as speech and natural language processing. The initial release, a stand-alone virtual person called Sylvie, was beta-tested to the public. This release was well received, and finally, after several versions, the production release (deemed version 3) of the Verbally Enhanced Software Robot, or Verbot, was deployed in fall 2000. The grandfather of all Verbots is Rog-O-Matic, which, although it could not talk, could and did explore a virtual world. Julia has been active on the internet in one form or another since 1989. A close cousin of Julia is Lycos, a robot that explores the World Wide Web and answers questions about it. Sylvie was the first Verbot with a face and a voice. Sylvie was the first Virtual Human with advanced, flexible interfacing capability. === Beginnings === The Virtual Personalities story goes back to 1978, where Mauldin was attending Rice University. Fascinated by the idea of ELIZA, he proceeded to write a program called "PET" for his 8 kilobyte Commodore PET Computer. PET included simple induction as a way to post new information, for example: Subject: I like my friend (later) Subject: I like food. PET: I have heard that food is your friend. Meanwhile, Plantec was separately designing a personality for "Entity", a theoretical virtual human that would interact comfortably with humans without pretending to be one. At that time the technology was not advanced enough to realize Entity. Mauldin got so involved with this that he majored in Computer Science and minored in Linguistics. === Rogue === In the late seventies and early eighties, a popular computer game at universities was Rogue, an implementation of Dungeons and Dragons where the player would descend 26 levels in a randomly created dungeon, fighting monsters, gathering treasure, and searching for the elusive "Amulet of Yendor". Mauldin was one of four grad students who devoted a large amount of time to building a program called "Rog-O-Matic" capable of retrieving the amulet and emerging victorious from the dungeon. === TinyMUD === In 1989, when James Aspnes at Carnegie Mellon created the first TinyMUD (a descendant of MUD and AberMUD), Mauldin was one of the first to create a computer player that would explore the text-based world of TinyMUD. But his first robot, Gloria, gradually accreted more and more linguistic ability, to the point that it could pass the "unsuspecting" Turing test. In this version of the test, the human has no reason to suspect that one of the other occupants of the room is controlled by a computer, and so is more polite and asks fewer probing questions. The second generation of Mauldin's TinyMUD robots was Julia, created on Jan. 8, 1990. Julia slowly developed into a more and more capable conversational agent, and assumed useful duties in the TinyMUD world, including tour guide, information assistant, note-taker, and message-relayer. She could even play the card game hearts along with the other human players. In 1991, Julia attended the first Loebner Prize contest in Boston, Massachusetts. Although she only finished third, she was ranked by one judge as more human than one of the human confederates, winning a coveted certificate of humanness in the world's first restricted Turing test. Julia continued to log in to various TinyMUD's and TinyMucks for the next seven years, and chatted with hundreds of people a month over the internet. === Lycos === Julia's job was to explore a virtual world consisting of pages of textual descriptions, with links between them, and to construct an internal map of that world and answer questions about it (including path information such as the shortest route from one room to another, and matching information, such as which rooms contained a certain kind of object or textual description). It was therefore only a very short cognitive leap from Julia to Lycos, another robotic agent that explores a virtual world made of hyperlinked pages of text, and which answers questions about those pages. Sylvie was born and her abilities were expanded greatly to include interfacing with computers and control systems via her serial ports. === Sylvie === Sylvie was the first intelligent animated virtual human. She was designed both as a conversation agent and as a virtual human interface that would form a bridge between the two. She became more popular as a conversation agent, but her designers believe she serves as a prototype for future virtual human interface design that will help us all cope with the increasing complexity of technology. As an aside, Plantec noticed that a large number of Sylvies have been sold in Southeast Asia. Upon investigation, he found out that students had discovered a "test" mode that would allow them to type in English sentences that Sylvie would pronounce in her somewhat stylized English. == Ownership == In 1997, Dr. Mauldin and Peter Plantec formed Virtual Personalities, Inc. to create Natural Language Processing solutions for companies. In 2001 Virtual Personalities, Inc. became Conversive, Inc. to reflect the focus on providing Customer Service and Marketing to the Enterprise Market. In late 2012 Avaya, Inc. acquired Conversive's assets including Verbots. == Verbot versions == The Verbot 4 version was created and released in 2004. In 2005 Version 4.1 of the Verbot Software was released with many feature enhancements and bug fixes, including built-in support for embedding C# code in outputs and conditionals. In early 2006 Conversive launched Verbots Online allowing Verbot 4 users to upload their knowledge and show off their bots to the world. In 2009 Version 5 was released, completely free and fully featured. In early 2012 the last version of Verbot, 5.0.1.2, was released to the general public with support for Windows 7. Later in 2012 Verbots Online completely shut down. == Verbots today == Verbots.com, its community of users, and its forums no longer exist, but the software and users can still be found. There has been no active development since the early 2012 release of Verbot 5.0.1.2.
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Nvidia Omniverse

Omniverse is a real-time 3D graphics collaboration platform created by Nvidia. It has been used for applications in the visual effects and "digital twin" industrial simulation industries. Omniverse makes extensive use of the Universal Scene Description (USD) format. == Third-party Integrations == Omniverse supports integration with external computer-aided design tools through third-party connectors. For example, academic work has demonstrated a connector linking Omniverse with the open-source CAD system FreeCAD, enabling collaborative access to CAD geometry via the Omniverse Nucleus server and extending Omniverse usage beyond media and entertainment workflows.
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Layers (digital image editing)

Layers are used in digital image editing to separate different elements of an image. A layer can be compared to a transparency on which imaging effects or images are applied and placed over or under an image. Today they are an integral feature of image editors. In the early days of computing, memory was at a premium and the idea of using multi-layered images was considered infeasible in personal computer applications as the tradeoffs were image size and color depth. As the price of memory fell it became feasible to apply the concept of layering to raster images. The first software known to apply the concept of layers was LALF, which was released in 1989 for the NEC PC-9801. LALF's terminology for layers is "cells", after the concept of drawing animation frames over-top of a stencil. Layers were introduced in Western markets by Fauve Matisse (later Macromedia xRes), and then available in Adobe Photoshop 3.0, in 1994, which lead to widespread adoption. In vector image editors that support animation, layers are used to further enable manipulation along a common timeline for the animation; in SVG images, the equivalent to layers are "groups". == Layer types == There are different kinds of layers, and not all of them exist in all programs. They represent a part of a picture, either as pixels or as modification instructions. They are stacked on top of each other, and depending on the order, determine the appearance of the final picture. In graphics software, layers are the different levels at which one can place an object or image file. In the program, layers can be stacked, merged, or defined when creating a digital image. Layers can be partially obscured allowing portions of images within a layer to be hidden or shown in a translucent manner within another image. Layers can also be used to combine two or more images into a single digital image. For the purpose of editing, working with layers allows for applying changes to just one specific layer. == Layer (basic) == The standard layer available to most programs consists of a rectangular, semitransparent picture which may be superimposed over other layers. Some programs require that layers cover the same area as the final canvas, but others offer layers of multiple sizes. Each layer may bear individual settings, such as opacity, blending modes, dynamic filters, and potentially hundreds of other properties. == Layer mask == A layer mask is linked to a layer and hides part of the layer from the picture. What is painted black on the layer mask will not be visible in the final picture. What is grey will be more or less transparent depending on the shade of grey. As the layer mask can be both edited and moved around independently of both the background layer and the layer it applies to, it gives the user the ability to test a lot of different combinations of overlay. == Adjustment layer == An adjustment layer typically applies a common effect like brightness or saturation to other layers. However, as the effect is stored in a separate layer, it is easy to try it out and switch between different alternatives, without changing the original layer. In addition, an adjustment layer can easily be edited, just like a layer mask, so an effect can be applied to just part of the image.
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