AI Content To Human

AI Content To Human — independent reviews, comparisons, pricing and step-by-step guides on Aizhi.

  • Load file

    Load file

    A load file in the litigation community is commonly referred to as the file used to import data (coded, captured or extracted data from ESI processing) into a database; or the file used to link images. These load files carry commands, commanding the software to carry out certain functions with the data found in them. Load files are usually ASCII text files that have delimited fields of information. Such load files may have data about documents to be imported into a document management software such as Concordance or Summation. Or they may have the path or directory where images may reside so that the software can link such images to their corresponding records. Some database programs take one load file for importing images and another for importing data while others take only one load file for both pieces of information. OCR or Search-able Text which is considered "data" is also imported into most database programs via the same load files. Though some people prefer to load the OCR into their databases by running a separate command to search and find the desired text. Commonly used databases and their corresponding file extensions are: Summation (DII , CSV), Concordance (OPT, DAT), Sanction (SDT), IPRO (LFP), Ringtail (MDB) and DB/TextWorks (TXT).

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  • BigDog

    BigDog

    BigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped military robot platform that was created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics with the Harvard University Concord Field Station. It was funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), but the project was shelved after the BigDog's gas engine was deemed too loud for combat. == History == BigDog was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the hopes that it would be able to serve as a mechanic pack mule to accompany soldiers in terrain too rough for conventional vehicles. Instead of wheels or treads, BigDog uses four legs for movement, allowing it to move across surfaces that would be difficult for wheels. The legs contain a variety of sensors, including joint position and ground contact. BigDog also features a laser gyroscope and a stereo vision system. BigDog is 3 feet (0.91 m) long, stands 2.5 feet (0.76 m) tall, and weighs 240 pounds (110 kg), making it about the size of a small mule. It is capable of traversing difficult terrain, running at four miles per hour (6.4 km/h), carrying 340 pounds (150 kg), and climbing a 35 degree incline. Locomotion is controlled by an onboard computer that receives input from the robot's various sensors. Navigation and balance are also managed by the control system. BigDog's walking pattern is controlled through four legs, each equipped with four low-friction hydraulic cylinder actuators that power the joints. BigDog's locomotion behaviors can vary greatly. It can stand up, sit down, walk with a crawling gait that lifts one leg at a time, walk with a trotting gait lifting diagonal legs, or trot with a running gait. The travel speed of BigDog varies from a 0.62 mph (1 km/h) crawl to a 3.3 mph (5.3 km/h) trot. The BigDog project was headed by Dr. Martin Buehler, who received the Joseph Engelberger Award from the Robotics Industries Association in 2012 for the work. Dr. Buehler while previously a professor at McGill University, headed the robotics lab there, developing four-legged walking and running robots. Built onto the actuators are sensors for joint position and force, and movement is ultimately controlled through an onboard computer which manages the sensors. Approximately 50 sensors are located on BigDog. These measure the attitude and acceleration of the body, motion, and force of joint actuators as well as engine speed, temperature and hydraulic pressure inside the robot's internal engine. Low-level control, such as position and force of the joints, and high-level control such as velocity and altitude during locomotion, are both controlled through the onboard computer. BigDog was featured in episodes of Web Junk 20 and Hungry Beast, and in articles in New Scientist, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and The Wall Street Journal. In September 2011 Boston Dynamics released video footage of a new generation of BigDog known as AlphaDog. The footage shows AlphaDog's ability to walk on rough terrain and recover its balance when kicked from the side. The refined equivalent has been designed by Boston Dynamics to exceed the BigDog in terms of capabilities and use to dismounted soldiers. In February 2012, with further DARPA support, the militarized Legged Squad Support System (LS3) variant of BigDog demonstrated its capabilities during a hike over a rough terrain. Starting in the summer of 2012, DARPA planned to complete the overall development of the system and refine its key capabilities in 18 months, ensuring its worth to dismounted warfighters before it is rolled out to squads operating in-theatre. BigDog must be able to demonstrate its ability to complete a 20-mile (32 km) trail in 24 hours, without refuelling, while carrying a 325-pound (150 kg) load. A refinement of its vision sensors will also be conducted. At the end of February 2013, Boston Dynamics released video footage of a modified BigDog with an arm. The arm could pick up objects and throw them. The robot is relying on its legs and torso to help power the motions of the arm. It is believed that it can lift weights around 55 pounds (25 kg). This work was funded by the United States Army Research Laboratory and paved the way for integrating manipulators with quadrupeds as found on Spot, the spiritual successor of BigDog. === Discontinuation === At the end of December 2013, the BigDog project was discontinued. Despite hopes that it would one day work like a pack mule for US soldiers in the field, the gasoline-powered engine was deemed too noisy for use in combat, and it could be heard from hundreds of meters away. A similar project for an all-electric robot named Spot in 2016 was much quieter, but could only carry 45 pounds (20 kg). Both projects are no longer in progress, but the Spot was only released in 2020. == Hardware == BigDog is powered by a small two-stroke, one-cylinder, 15-brake-horsepower (11 kW) engine operating at 9,000 RPM. The engine drives a hydraulic pump, which in turn drives the hydraulic leg actuators. Each leg has four actuators (two for the hip joint, and two each for the knee and ankle joints), for a total of 16. Each actuator unit consists of a hydraulic cylinder, servo valve, position sensor, and force sensor. Onboard computing power is a ruggedized PC/104 board stack with two computers, one running a Pentium M processor running QNX (used for sensor data processing) and another running a Core Duo processor (used for visual data processing). == Gallery ==

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  • BabyCenter

    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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  • Apps to analyse COVID-19 sounds

    Apps to analyse COVID-19 sounds

    Apps to analyse COVID-19 sounds are mobile software applications designed to collect respiratory sounds and aid diagnosis in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous applications are in development, with different institutions and companies taking various approaches to privacy and data collection. Current efforts are aimed at gathering data. In a later stage, it is possible that sound apps will have the capacity (and ethical approvals) to provide information back to users. In order to develop and train signal analysis approaches, large datasets are required. == History == The COVID-19 outbreak was announced as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020 and has affected a growing number of people globally. In this context, advanced artificial intelligence techniques are being considered as tools in aiding our response to global health crisis. Other COVID-19 apps which offer solutions for user tracking have been developed. At the same time a number of approaches which tries to use respiratory sounds and artificial intelligence to understand if the disease can be diagnosed have been proposed. A few studies are available as preprints (i.e. not yet peer-reviewed) documents. == Methodologies == The potential for using speech and sound analysis by artificial intelligence to help in this scenario, by surveying which types of related or contextually significant phenomena can be automatically assessed from speech or sound has been recently overviewed. These include the automatic recognition and monitoring of breathing, dry and wet coughing or sneezing sounds, speech under cold, eating behaviour, sleepiness, or pain. Additionally, the potential use-cases of intelligent speech analysis for COVID-19 diagnosed patients has also been presented. In particular, by analysing speech recordings from these patients, an audio-only-based model to automatically categorise the health state of patients from four aspects, including the severity of illness, sleep quality, fatigue, and anxiety, is constructed. This work shows promise in estimating the severity of illness. Machine learning methods have been explored to recognize and diagnose coughs from different diseases. These included a low complexity, automated recognition and diagnostic tool for screening respiratory infections that utilizes convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to detect cough within environment audio and diagnose three potential illnesses (i.e. bronchitis, bronchiolitis and pertussis) based on their unique cough audio features. A large-scale crowdsourced dataset of respiratory sounds has been collected to aid diagnosis of COVID-19: coughs and breathing sounds are sufficient to distinguish users affected by COVID-19 versus those affected by asthma or healthy controls. Behind these studies is the ambition that automated systems to screen for respiratory diseases based on voice, raw cough or other sound data would have positive medical applications in both clinical and public health arenas. == List of apps to analyse COVID-19 sounds ==

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  • Peanut App

    Peanut App

    Peanut, a product of Peanut App Ltd. is an online community for women who are planning to become pregnant, women who are pregnant, women who have had children, and women who are experiencing menopause. Profiles of potential friends are displayed to users who can swipe up to show intent to connect. Users can also connect via discussion threads, groups, and live audio conversations. The app allows users to select their stage of life (trying to conceive, pregnancy, motherhood, or menopause), so as to meet women at a similar life stage, and to discover relevant content. Peanut was founded by Michelle Kennedy shortly after she left Bumble, a female-first dating app. She has described Peanut as, "the app she wishes she had when she first became a mother". == History == Peanut was initially launched in 2017 for mothers and pregnant women. The app focuses on helping users find others with shared interests, such as spoken languages, occupations, and hobbies. It also displays a woman's life stage, such as the age of her children, or the stage of pregnancy. In 2018, it launched a community discussion feature that intended to give women an "alternative to other social platforms". In 2019, it started to serve women who are trying to conceive. In April 2021, it integrated live audio, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the restrictions around in-person socializing. in September 2021, it started to include women who are navigating perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopausal. Although it had initially catered for younger women navigating into new families, a large number of users had undergone surgically or chemically induced menopause due to medical conditions. In July 2021, Peanut launched an investment micro fund, Peanut StartHER, focused on investing in women-owned businesses, as well as other historically excluded founders. == Operation == The Peanut app is a social network exclusively for women, focusing on topics of pregnancy, motherhood, fertility, and menopause. It is available on iOS and Android devices. Users must prove their identity, in keeping with the primary function of in-app safety, and then they can create a profile to interact with other users. For pregnant users, the “Bump Buddies” feature helps connect them with other Peanut users who have a similar due date, which aimed to help expecting mothers combat loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Peanut users also have the option to join “Groups” ‒ sub-sections of users focused on specific topics, including (but not limited to) location, life stage, pregnancy due date, and interests or hobbies. The live voice chat feature “Pods”, enables Peanut users to socialize without the pressure of photos or video chat. It offers features such as a muted audience of listeners who need to virtually raise their hand to speak, emoji reactions, and hosts who can moderate the conversations and invite people to speak.

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  • Passenger drone

    Passenger drone

    A passenger drone is an autonomous aircraft that is designed to carry a small number of passengers to a destination. In 2021, Ehang, a technology company based in Guangzhou, China, developed the Ehang 184, the world's first passenger drone. == History == Unmanned aerial vehicles were first introduced in World War 1, when Britain first developed the Aerial Target, an aircraft controlled remotely through radio signals. A year later in the United States, testing of Kettering Bug, a 12-foot long biplane attached with a bomb and that launched via a “slingshot-like rail”, was also under progress. Both of their unreliable test results and their possibility of endangering friendly troops in deployment caused neither aircraft to be used during the war. Production of UAVs continued after World War I and into World War II and the Vietnam War, where they would be invaluable in assisting with training as well as reconnaissance. Late 20th century also saw the proposition and development of unique methods of travel, including personal jetpacks and even flying cars. While the previously mentioned are not drones, they serve as a precursor and foundation for the passenger drones of today. The first passenger drone was unveiled on January 6 of 2016 at the international Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Produced by Ehang, a Chinese company based in Guangzhou, the 184 was a one passenger drone equipped with four propellers that could fly for approximately 23 minutes at a top speed of 63 mph. Since then, many new companies have entered the market, but none yet have been accessible by the public. == Technological development == Since 2013, improvements in designs to wing structures have contributed to the economic feasibility of passenger drones. New structural advancements, such as the flapping-wing propulsion system based on the mechanisms of birds’ wings, are more available as they have proven their capabilities in laboratory testing. As of September 29th, 2015, most market-ready drones are delivery drones with a carrying capacity limited to small packages - with a typical max capacity of under 5 pounds. However, while the technology exists for drones with larger carrying capacities, specifically those capable of carrying multiple humans, the execution of this technology is not yet market accessible. This capacity limit must be addressed for passenger drones; given current designs strive to carry a maximum of 5 people. However, some estimates believe that passengers drones could become a reality, specifically for paid transportation and emergency purposes, as early as 2026. With implementation of this technology, there could be significant effects on ground traffic including reducing gridlock in heavily congested areas and conserving up to 15% of the fuel currently used in heavy traffic patterns. However, extensive growth of the passenger drone market also risks clouding the low-altitude airspace and causing new safety risks. However, this concern is being addressed by recent advancements in the Internet of Drones (IoD) which links drones together to ensure appropriate pathing and reduce mid-air collisions. While this brings additional security issues, including maintaining reliable communication channels in the case of technological failure, researchers hope that this will help reduce crashes that can result in damage to passengers, buildings, and people in and around the airspace. == Notable companies == Ehang is a Chinese company that has developed numerous drones including passenger plane Ehang 184. EHang 184 was their first model, developed as an eight dual rotor wing blade drone that can carry two passengers. The model was retired in 2020 and is replaced by the Ehang 216. Ehang also released a one passenger drone, Ehang 116. Ehang in 2021 unveiled the model VT-30. VT-30 is designed to have eight dual rotor wing blades to complement its fixed wing platform. Flyastro, a Texas-based drone company, developed the Astro ALTA, with two and four person passenger models. The company is known for being the first to develop a solar-powered airplane. The development team initially began with the model, Elroy. It was a two passenger drone with similar design to the ALTA. Once flight was achieved, the model Astro ALTA began development. Joby Aviation is a California based company that has developed a five passenger drone, with one seat for the pilot. The company expects to complete its FAA certification process 2022. Joby in 2020 acquired a 75 million dollar investment from service provider Uber Technologies Inc., leading to Uber Elevate and Expands partnership. Archer Aviation is a California-based company that has developed a two passenger model called Maker. It has fixed wings with twelve rotor wings. Archer is developing five person model. United Airlines has partnered with Archer for commercial sale of the model, Maker. Maker is expected to be released within Los Angeles and Miami by 2024. CityAirbus is a drone project developed by Airbus, a European multinational aerospace company, based in the Netherlands. CityAirbus has developed a four- person passenger drone with fixed wings that include rotor wing blades. Its expected certification for public flight is in 2025. Boeing, an American multinational aviation corporation is developing a passenger drone model called the Passenger Air Vehicle (PAV). The model is a fixed wing with eight rotor blade wings attached onto a platform underneath the base structure. This model can hold two passengers and still is in development. Volocopter is a German aircraft manufacturer that is developing a passenger drone called Volocity. The model consist of eighteen rotor wings above the cockpit on a circular ring. Japan Airlines, an investor of Volocopter plans to have public test in Japan as early as 2023. == Future use == === Potential benefits === Passenger drones can greatly reduce the time for travel. As passenger drones flight paths are not restricted by conventional roads, the travel distance is shortened. Current ventures such as Joby Aviation, after acquiring Uber Air, plan to take advantage of this technology in the form of air taxis. Other potential benefits include the use of passenger drones by emergency services such as search and rescue missions and the delivery of life saving goods. Companies like Ehang have already begun using passenger drones as emergency vehicles as a response to the potential river collapses during the flood season in China. === Concerns === Passenger and air traffic safety remains at the forefront of concerns. Regulations for air traffic centered around passenger drones are still underway and would continue to develop with increasing use cases for passenger drones. Remote security threats on commercial drones such as Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attack have also exposed the vulnerabilities in current drone systems. Among American adults, 54 percent say that they would feel unsafe flying inside a passenger drone. Passenger drones can be very noisy; a single passenger drone such as Joby Aviation’s all-electric vertical take-off and landing (“eVTOL”) aircraft has an estimated noise production of 70 decibels (dB), a noise level equating to “loud traffic”.

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  • Robomart

    Robomart

    Robomart is an American technology company headquartered in Santa Monica, California that builds autonomous smart shops for cafes, ice cream parlors, and quick-service restaurants. The company’s white label platform gives retailers the option to expand their footprint at a significantly lower cost than traditional brick-and-mortar real-estate. Robomarts are equipped with a proprietary checkout-free system, temperature controlled compartments, sensors for autonomous operation, and external cameras for added security. The company licenses its technology and white label applications to retailers who manage their fleet of stores and deploy them to their consumers’ locations. After consumers have taken goods from the robomart, their order is automatically calculated, their card on file is charged and they are sent a receipt. The company has announced partnerships with Unilever, Mars, and Fatty Mart. == History == Robomart was founded by Ali Ahmed, Tigran Shahverdyan, and Emad Suhail Rahim. The company debuted at CES 2018 where it unveiled its concept of a self-driving store. At GITEX 2018 the company presented its first functional prototype of a fully driverless Robomart. At the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show the company demonstrated the technology behind its autonomous stores and checkout-free shopping experience. In January 2019, Robomart announced its first partnership with U.S. grocery chain Stop & Shop to test its driverless stores. In December 2020, Robomart deployed the Pharmacy Robomart in a trial in West Hollywood. In June 2021, the company launched its commercial service with a fleet of Pharmacy and Snacks Robomarts operating within West Hollywood and Central Hollywood. In August 2023, Robomart announced a $2 million seed round, putting its to-date funding at $3.4 million. == Partnerships == In September 2019, Robomart partnered with Avery Dennison to source the RFID tags used to enable its checkout-free shopping experience. In December 2020, Robomart partnered with Zeeba Vans to provide vehicles for its growing fleet. In June 2021, Robomart partnered with REEF Technology to provide inventory management and restocking services. In addition, REEF's Light Speed grocery division serves as the first merchant selling products through Robomart. == Products == The company currently offers three Robomart types. The frozen Robomart that stocks ice cream, the refrigerated Robomart that stocks perishable foods, and the ambient Robomart that stocks shelf-stable goods.

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  • Jaggies

    Jaggies

    Jaggies are visual artifacts in raster images, most frequently from aliasing, which in turn is often caused by non-linear mixing effects producing high-frequency components, or missing or poor anti-aliasing filtering prior to sampling. Jaggies are stair-like lines that appear where there should be "smooth" straight lines or curves. For example, when a nominally straight, un-aliased line steps across one pixel either horizontally or vertically, a "dogleg" occurs halfway through the line, where it crosses the threshold from one pixel to the other. Jaggies should not be confused with most compression artifacts, which are a different phenomenon. == Causes == Jaggies occur due to the "staircase effect". This is because a line represented in raster mode is approximated by a sequence of pixels. Jaggies can occur for a variety of reasons, the most common being that the output device (display monitor or printer) does not have sufficient resolution to portray a smooth line. In addition, jaggies often occur when a bit-mapped image is scaled to a higher resolution. This is one of the advantages that vector graphics have over bitmapped graphics – a vector image can be losslessly scaled to any arbitrary resolution or stretched infinitely in either axis without introducing jaggies. == Solutions == The effect of jaggies can be reduced by a graphics technique known as spatial anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing smooths out jagged lines by surrounding them with transparent pixels to simulate the appearance of fractionally-filled pixels when viewed at a distance. The downside of anti-aliasing is that it reduces contrast – rather than sharp black/white transitions, there are shades of gray – and the resulting image can appear fuzzy. This is an inescapable trade-off: if the resolution is insufficient to display the desired detail, the output will either be jagged, fuzzy, or some combination thereof. While machine learning-based upscaling techniques such as DLSS can be used to infer this missing information, other types of artifacts may be introduced in the process. In real-time 3D rendering such as in video games, various anti-aliasing techniques are used to remove jaggies created by the edges of polygons and other contrasting lines. Since anti-aliasing can impose a significant performance overhead, games for home computers often allow users to choose the level and type of anti-aliasing in use in order to optimize their experience, whereas on consoles this setting is typically fixed for each title to ensure a consistent experience. While anti-aliasing is generally implemented through graphics APIs like DirectX and Vulkan, some consoles such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are also capable of anti-aliasing to little direct performance cost by way of dedicated hardware which performs anti-aliasing on the contents of the framebuffer once it has been rendered by the GPU. Jaggies in bitmaps, such as sprites and surface materials, are most often dealt with by separate texture filtering routines, which are far easier to perform than anti-aliasing filtering. Texture filtering became ubiquitous on PCs after the introduction of 3Dfx's Voodoo GPU. == Notable uses of the term == In the 1985 game Rescue on Fractalus! for the Atari 8-bit computers, the graphics depicting the cockpit of the player's spacecraft contains two window struts, which are not anti-aliased and are therefore very "jagged". The developers made fun of this and named the in-game enemies "Jaggi", and also initially titled the game Behind Jaggi Lines!. The latter idea was scrapped by the marketing department before release.

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  • Biopython

    Biopython

    Biopython is an open-source collection of non-commercial Python modules for computational biology and bioinformatics. It makes robust and well-tested code easily accessible to researchers. Python is an object-oriented programming language and is a suitable choice for automation of common tasks. The availability of reusable libraries saves development time and lets researchers focus on addressing scientific questions. Biopython is constantly updated and maintained by a large team of volunteers across the globe. Biopython contains parsers for diverse bioinformatic sequence, alignment, and structure formats. Sequence formats include FASTA, FASTQ, GenBank, and EMBL. Alignment formats include Clustal, BLAST, PHYLIP, and NEXUS. Structural formats include the PDB, which contains the 3D atomic coordinates of the macromolecules. It has provisions to access information from biological databases like NCBI, Expasy, PBD, and BioSQL. This can be used in scripts or incorporated into their software. Biopython contains a standard sequence class, sequence alignment, and motif analysis tools. It also has clustering algorithms, a module for structural biology, and a module for phylogenetics analysis. == History == The development of Biopython began in 1999, and it was first released in July 2000. First "semi-complete" and "semi-stable" release was done in March 2001 and December 2002 respectively. It was developed during a similar time frame and with analogous goals to other projects that added bioinformatics capabilities to their respective programming languages, including BioPerl, BioRuby and BioJava. Early developers on the project included Jeff Chang, Andrew Dalke and Brad Chapman, though over 100 people have made contributions to date. In 2007, a similar Python project, namely PyCogent, was established. The initial scope of Biopython involved accessing, indexing and processing biological sequence files. The retrieved data from common biological databases will then be parsed into a python data structure. While this is still a major focus, over the following years added modules have extended its functionality to cover additional areas of biology. The key challenge in the design of parsers for bioinformatics file formats is the frequency at which the data formats change. This is due to inadequate curation of the structure of the data, and changes in the database contents. This problem is overcome by the application of a standard event-oriented parser design (see Key features and examples). As of version 1.77, Biopython no longer supports Python 2. The current stable release of Biopython version 1.85 was released on 15 January 2025. It only supports Python 3 and the recent releases of Biopython require NumPy (and not Numeric). == Design == Wherever possible, Biopython follows the conventions used by the Python programming language to make it easier for users familiar with Python. For example, Seq and SeqRecord objects can be manipulated via slicing, in a manner similar to Python's strings and lists. It is also designed to be functionally similar to other Bio projects, such as BioPerl. It is organized into modular sub-packages, e.g., Bio.Seq, Bio.Align, Bio.PDB, Bio.Entrez each of them useful in a different bioinformatics domain. It used principles, like encapsulation and polymorphism, notably in classes Seq, SeqRecord, and Bio.PDB.Structure. It can also interoperate with other Python tools (Pandas, Matplotlib and SciPy). Biopython can read and write most common file formats for each of its functional areas, and its license is permissive and compatible with most other software licenses, which allows Biopython to be used in a variety of software projects. == Requirements == Biopython is currently supported and tested with the following Python implementations: Python 3 or PyPy3 NumPy == Key features and examples == === Input and output === Biopython can read and write to a number of common formats. When reading files, descriptive information in the file is used to populate the members of Biopython classes, such as SeqRecord. This allows records of one file format to be converted into others. Very large sequence files can exceed a computer's memory resources, so Biopython provides various options for accessing records in large files. They can be loaded entirely into memory in Python data structures, such as lists or dictionaries, providing fast access at the cost of memory usage. Alternatively, the files can be read from disk as needed, with slower performance but lower memory requirements. === Sequences === A core concept in Biopython is the biological sequence, and this is represented by the Seq class. A Biopython Seq object is similar to a Python string in many respects: it supports the Python slice notation, can be concatenated with other sequences and is immutable. This object includes both general string-like and biological sequence-specific methods. It is best to store information about the biological type (DNA, RNA, protein) separately from the sequence, rather than using an explicit alphabet argument. === Sequence annotation === The SeqRecord class describes sequences, along with information such as name, description and features in the form of SeqFeature objects. Each SeqFeature object specifies the type of the feature and its location. Feature types can be ‘gene’, ‘CDS’ (coding sequence), ‘repeat_region’, ‘mobile_element’ or others, and the position of features in the sequence can be exact or approximate. === Accessing online databases === Through the Bio.Entrez module, users of Biopython can download biological data from NCBI databases. Each of the functions provided by the Entrez search engine is available through functions in this module, including searching for and downloading records. === Phylogeny === The Bio.Phylo module provides tools for working with and visualising phylogenetic trees. A variety of file formats are supported for reading and writing, including Newick, NEXUS and phyloXML. Common tree manipulations and traversals are supported via the Tree and Clade objects. Examples include converting and collating tree files, extracting subsets from a tree, changing a tree's root, and analysing branch features such as length or score. Rooted trees can be drawn in ASCII or using matplotlib (see Figure 1), and the Graphviz library can be used to create unrooted layouts (see Figure 2). === Genome diagrams === The GenomeDiagram module provides methods of visualising sequences within Biopython. Sequences can be drawn in a linear or circular form (see Figure 3), and many output formats are supported, including PDF and PNG. Diagrams are created by making tracks and then adding sequence features to those tracks. By looping over a sequence's features and using their attributes to decide if and how they are added to the diagram's tracks, one can exercise much control over the appearance of the final diagram. Cross-links can be drawn between different tracks, allowing one to compare multiple sequences in a single diagram. === Macromolecular structure === The Bio.PDB module can load molecular structures from PDB and mmCIF files, and was added to Biopython in 2003. The Structure object is central to this module, and it organises macromolecular structure in a hierarchical fashion: Structure objects contain Model objects which contain Chain objects which contain Residue objects which contain Atom objects. Disordered residues and atoms get their own classes, DisorderedResidue and DisorderedAtom, that describe their uncertain positions. Using Bio.PDB, one can navigate through individual components of a macromolecular structure file, such as examining each atom in a protein. Common analyses can be carried out, such as measuring distances or angles, comparing residues and calculating residue depth. === Population genetics === The Bio.PopGen module adds support to Biopython for Genepop, a software package for statistical analysis of population genetics. This allows for analyses of Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, linkage disequilibrium and other features of a population's allele frequencies. This module can also carry out population genetic simulations using coalescent theory with the fastsimcoal2 program. === Wrappers for command line tools === Biopython previously included command-line wrappers for tools such as BLAST, Clustal, EMBOSS, and SAMtools. This option allowed users to run external tool commands from within the code using specialized Biopython classes. However, Bio.Application modules and their wrappers have deprecated and will be removed in future Biopython releases. The main reason for this is the high maintenance burden of updating them with the evolving external tools. The recommended approach is to directly construct and execute command-line tool commands using Python’s built-in subprocess module. This method provides flexibility and removes the dependency on the Biopython wrappers. subprocess is a native Python module useful for running ext

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  • Projection-slice theorem

    Projection-slice theorem

    In mathematics, the projection-slice theorem, central slice theorem or Fourier slice theorem in two dimensions states that the results of the following two calculations are equal: Take a two-dimensional function f(r), project (e.g. using the Radon transform) it onto a (one-dimensional) line, and do a Fourier transform of that projection. Take that same function, but do a two-dimensional Fourier transform first, and then slice the function through its origin, parallel to the projection line. In operator terms, if F1 and F2 are the 1- and 2-dimensional Fourier transform operators mentioned above, P1 is the projection operator (which projects a 2-D function onto a 1-D line), S1 is a slice operator (which extracts a 1-D central slice from a function), then F 1 P 1 = S 1 F 2 . {\displaystyle F_{1}P_{1}=S_{1}F_{2}.} This idea can be extended to higher dimensions. This theorem is used, for example, in the analysis of medical CT scans where a "projection" is an x-ray image of an internal organ. The Fourier transforms of these images are seen to be slices through the Fourier transform of the 3-dimensional density of the internal organ, and these slices can be interpolated to build up a complete Fourier transform of that density. The inverse Fourier transform is then used to recover the 3-dimensional density of the object. This technique was first derived by Ronald N. Bracewell in 1956 for a radio-astronomy problem. == The projection-slice theorem in N dimensions == In N dimensions, the projection-slice theorem states that the Fourier transform of the projection of an N-dimensional function f(r) onto an m-dimensional linear submanifold is equal to an m-dimensional slice of the N-dimensional Fourier transform of that function consisting of an m-dimensional linear submanifold through the origin in the Fourier space which is parallel to the projection submanifold. In operator terms: F m P m = S m F N . {\displaystyle F_{m}P_{m}=S_{m}F_{N}.\,} == The generalized Fourier-slice theorem == In addition to generalizing to N dimensions, the projection-slice theorem can be further generalized with an arbitrary change of basis. For convenience of notation, we consider the change of basis to be represented as B, an N-by-N invertible matrix operating on N-dimensional column vectors. Then the generalized Fourier-slice theorem can be stated as F m P m B = S m B − T | B − T | F N {\displaystyle F_{m}P_{m}B=S_{m}{\frac {B^{-T}}{|B^{-T}|}}F_{N}} where B − T = ( B − 1 ) T {\displaystyle B^{-T}=(B^{-1})^{T}} is the transpose of the inverse of the change of basis transform. == Proof in two dimensions == The projection-slice theorem is easily proven for the case of two dimensions. Without loss of generality, we can take the projection line to be the x-axis. There is no loss of generality because if we use a shifted and rotated line, the law still applies. Using a shifted line (in y) gives the same projection and therefore the same 1D Fourier transform results. The rotated function is the Fourier pair of the rotated Fourier transform, for which the theorem again holds. If f(x, y) is a two-dimensional function, then the projection of f(x, y) onto the x axis is p(x) where p ( x ) = ∫ − ∞ ∞ f ( x , y ) d y . {\displaystyle p(x)=\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }f(x,y)\,dy.} The Fourier transform of f ( x , y ) {\displaystyle f(x,y)} is F ( k x , k y ) = ∫ − ∞ ∞ ∫ − ∞ ∞ f ( x , y ) e − 2 π i ( x k x + y k y ) d x d y . {\displaystyle F(k_{x},k_{y})=\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }f(x,y)\,e^{-2\pi i(xk_{x}+yk_{y})}\,dxdy.} The slice is then s ( k x ) {\displaystyle s(k_{x})} s ( k x ) = F ( k x , 0 ) = ∫ − ∞ ∞ ∫ − ∞ ∞ f ( x , y ) e − 2 π i x k x d x d y {\displaystyle s(k_{x})=F(k_{x},0)=\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }f(x,y)\,e^{-2\pi ixk_{x}}\,dxdy} = ∫ − ∞ ∞ [ ∫ − ∞ ∞ f ( x , y ) d y ] e − 2 π i x k x d x {\displaystyle =\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }\left[\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }f(x,y)\,dy\right]\,e^{-2\pi ixk_{x}}dx} = ∫ − ∞ ∞ p ( x ) e − 2 π i x k x d x {\displaystyle =\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }p(x)\,e^{-2\pi ixk_{x}}dx} which is just the Fourier transform of p(x). The proof for higher dimensions is easily generalized from the above example. == The FHA cycle == If the two-dimensional function f(r) is circularly symmetric, it may be represented as f(r), where r = |r|. In this case the projection onto any projection line will be the Abel transform of f(r). The two-dimensional Fourier transform of f(r) will be a circularly symmetric function given by the zeroth-order Hankel transform of f(r), which will therefore also represent any slice through the origin. The projection-slice theorem then states that the Fourier transform of the projection equals the slice or F 1 A 1 = H , {\displaystyle F_{1}A_{1}=H,} where A1 represents the Abel-transform operator, projecting a two-dimensional circularly symmetric function onto a one-dimensional line, F1 represents the 1-D Fourier-transform operator, and H represents the zeroth-order Hankel-transform operator. == Extension to fan beam or cone-beam CT == The projection-slice theorem is suitable for CT image reconstruction with parallel beam projections. It does not directly apply to fanbeam or conebeam CT. The theorem was extended to fan-beam and conebeam CT image reconstruction by Shuang-ren Zhao in 1995.

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  • Morphological antialiasing

    Morphological antialiasing

    Morphological antialiasing (MLAA) is a spatial anti-aliasing technique used in real-time computer graphics. It reduces artifacts, such as jaggies, when representing a high-resolution image at a lower resolution. MLAA is a post-process filtering which detects borders in the resulting image and then finds specific patterns in these. Anti-aliasing is achieved by blending pixels in these borders, according to the pattern they belong to and their position within the pattern. Introduced in 2009, MLAA was an early and influential example of anti-aliasing techniques done in post-processing, which makes them suitable for deferred shading. A similar method in this class is fast approximate anti-aliasing (FXAA). Temporal anti-aliasing, also a post-process, has become the most common anti-aliasing method for real-time rendering and video games. Enhanced subpixel morphological antialiasing, or SMAA, is an image-based GPU-based implementation of MLAA developed by Universidad de Zaragoza and Crytek.

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  • List of 3D rendering software

    List of 3D rendering software

    3D rendering software products are the dedicated engines used for rendering computer-generated imagery. This is not the same as 3D modeling software, which involves the creation of 3D models, for which the software listed below can produce realistically rendered visualisations.General-purpose packages which can have their own built-in rendering capabilities are not listed here; these can be found in the list of 3D computer graphics software and list of 3D animation software. See 3D computer graphics software for more discussion about the distinctions.

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  • Lingua Libre

    Lingua Libre

    Lingua Libre is an online collaborative project and tool by the Wikimédia France association, which aims to build a collaborative, multilingual, audiovisual speech corpus under a free license. It mostly consists of a rapid recording online service which allows the user to chain hundreds of recordings. Contributors have produced content in 310+ languages. == Description == Lingua Libre enables the recording of words, phrases or sentences of any language, oral (audio recording) or signed (video recording). Words are presented to the speaker in the form of a list, created on the spot, in advance, or by reusing an existing Wikimedia category. The speaker simply reads the word displayed on the screen, and the software moves on to the next word when it detects a silence after the read word. This principle, borrowed from the open source software Shtooka recorder with the help of its creator, Nicolas Vion, makes it possible to record several hundreds of words per hour. The recordings are then uploaded automatically from the web client to the Wikimedia Commons media library. In spring 2021, Lingua Libre was offline due to a fire in Strasbourg, but no audio recordings were lost. === Use of the recordings === The recordings can be consulted either on Lingua Libre or on Commons. They are mainly used on other Wikimedia projects, for example to illustrate entries on Wiktionaries or proper nouns in Wikipedia articles. The re-use of the recordings in a language teaching context is envisaged. Language learners can freely download pronunciations and use them on GoldenDict, a popular dictionary software. Thus, audio recordings can be used as “Pronunciation Dictionaries” on GoldenDict without needing internet connection. The recordings are also reused in Natural Language Processing projects, for example to drive Mozilla's DeepSpeech speech recognition engines. == Versions == Lingua Libre was initiated on January 23, 2015 and has had three successive versions: === Lingua Libre v.1 (2016) === As part of the Languages of France project, which aims to document and promote the regional languages of France on Wikimedia and Internet projects in general, the conception of Lingua Libre started in November 2015, partly funded by the DGLFLF (General Delegation for the French language and the languages of France). The first version of the project was launched in August 2016. Only suitable for audio recording, Lingua Libre was shown during a workshop on Occitan language in December 2016, and then presented to the online Wikimedia community and at international events in 2017. === Lingua Libre v.2 (2018) === A complete rebuilding was launched at the end of 2017. The new version of Lingua Libre is based on MediaWiki, uses Wikibase and OAuth to better integrate into the Wikimedia environment. The interface is translated via Translatewiki.net so that the project can be used by a large number of communities. The new version of the site was ready in June 2018 and opened to the public in August 2018. === Lingua Libre v.2.2 (2020) === In 2020, important changes were made to the platform; a new look was developed especially for the site, the .org domain replaced the .fr domain used until then, and added support for sign languages through video recording. == Statistics == In the first two years of the project's launch, approximately 10,000 recordings were made. The transition to v.2 was accompanied by a sharp increase in the contributions. The number of recordings multiplied by 10 in less than a year, exceeding the 100,000 threshold in May 2019. These recordings were made by 127 speakers in almost 50 languages. By September 2020, the platform had more than 300,000 recordings in 90 languages with more than 350 speakers. The 500,000 recordings milestone was reached in June 2021, thanks to 540 speakers of 120 languages.

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  • Passenger drone

    Passenger drone

    A passenger drone is an autonomous aircraft that is designed to carry a small number of passengers to a destination. In 2021, Ehang, a technology company based in Guangzhou, China, developed the Ehang 184, the world's first passenger drone. == History == Unmanned aerial vehicles were first introduced in World War 1, when Britain first developed the Aerial Target, an aircraft controlled remotely through radio signals. A year later in the United States, testing of Kettering Bug, a 12-foot long biplane attached with a bomb and that launched via a “slingshot-like rail”, was also under progress. Both of their unreliable test results and their possibility of endangering friendly troops in deployment caused neither aircraft to be used during the war. Production of UAVs continued after World War I and into World War II and the Vietnam War, where they would be invaluable in assisting with training as well as reconnaissance. Late 20th century also saw the proposition and development of unique methods of travel, including personal jetpacks and even flying cars. While the previously mentioned are not drones, they serve as a precursor and foundation for the passenger drones of today. The first passenger drone was unveiled on January 6 of 2016 at the international Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Produced by Ehang, a Chinese company based in Guangzhou, the 184 was a one passenger drone equipped with four propellers that could fly for approximately 23 minutes at a top speed of 63 mph. Since then, many new companies have entered the market, but none yet have been accessible by the public. == Technological development == Since 2013, improvements in designs to wing structures have contributed to the economic feasibility of passenger drones. New structural advancements, such as the flapping-wing propulsion system based on the mechanisms of birds’ wings, are more available as they have proven their capabilities in laboratory testing. As of September 29th, 2015, most market-ready drones are delivery drones with a carrying capacity limited to small packages - with a typical max capacity of under 5 pounds. However, while the technology exists for drones with larger carrying capacities, specifically those capable of carrying multiple humans, the execution of this technology is not yet market accessible. This capacity limit must be addressed for passenger drones; given current designs strive to carry a maximum of 5 people. However, some estimates believe that passengers drones could become a reality, specifically for paid transportation and emergency purposes, as early as 2026. With implementation of this technology, there could be significant effects on ground traffic including reducing gridlock in heavily congested areas and conserving up to 15% of the fuel currently used in heavy traffic patterns. However, extensive growth of the passenger drone market also risks clouding the low-altitude airspace and causing new safety risks. However, this concern is being addressed by recent advancements in the Internet of Drones (IoD) which links drones together to ensure appropriate pathing and reduce mid-air collisions. While this brings additional security issues, including maintaining reliable communication channels in the case of technological failure, researchers hope that this will help reduce crashes that can result in damage to passengers, buildings, and people in and around the airspace. == Notable companies == Ehang is a Chinese company that has developed numerous drones including passenger plane Ehang 184. EHang 184 was their first model, developed as an eight dual rotor wing blade drone that can carry two passengers. The model was retired in 2020 and is replaced by the Ehang 216. Ehang also released a one passenger drone, Ehang 116. Ehang in 2021 unveiled the model VT-30. VT-30 is designed to have eight dual rotor wing blades to complement its fixed wing platform. Flyastro, a Texas-based drone company, developed the Astro ALTA, with two and four person passenger models. The company is known for being the first to develop a solar-powered airplane. The development team initially began with the model, Elroy. It was a two passenger drone with similar design to the ALTA. Once flight was achieved, the model Astro ALTA began development. Joby Aviation is a California based company that has developed a five passenger drone, with one seat for the pilot. The company expects to complete its FAA certification process 2022. Joby in 2020 acquired a 75 million dollar investment from service provider Uber Technologies Inc., leading to Uber Elevate and Expands partnership. Archer Aviation is a California-based company that has developed a two passenger model called Maker. It has fixed wings with twelve rotor wings. Archer is developing five person model. United Airlines has partnered with Archer for commercial sale of the model, Maker. Maker is expected to be released within Los Angeles and Miami by 2024. CityAirbus is a drone project developed by Airbus, a European multinational aerospace company, based in the Netherlands. CityAirbus has developed a four- person passenger drone with fixed wings that include rotor wing blades. Its expected certification for public flight is in 2025. Boeing, an American multinational aviation corporation is developing a passenger drone model called the Passenger Air Vehicle (PAV). The model is a fixed wing with eight rotor blade wings attached onto a platform underneath the base structure. This model can hold two passengers and still is in development. Volocopter is a German aircraft manufacturer that is developing a passenger drone called Volocity. The model consist of eighteen rotor wings above the cockpit on a circular ring. Japan Airlines, an investor of Volocopter plans to have public test in Japan as early as 2023. == Future use == === Potential benefits === Passenger drones can greatly reduce the time for travel. As passenger drones flight paths are not restricted by conventional roads, the travel distance is shortened. Current ventures such as Joby Aviation, after acquiring Uber Air, plan to take advantage of this technology in the form of air taxis. Other potential benefits include the use of passenger drones by emergency services such as search and rescue missions and the delivery of life saving goods. Companies like Ehang have already begun using passenger drones as emergency vehicles as a response to the potential river collapses during the flood season in China. === Concerns === Passenger and air traffic safety remains at the forefront of concerns. Regulations for air traffic centered around passenger drones are still underway and would continue to develop with increasing use cases for passenger drones. Remote security threats on commercial drones such as Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attack have also exposed the vulnerabilities in current drone systems. Among American adults, 54 percent say that they would feel unsafe flying inside a passenger drone. Passenger drones can be very noisy; a single passenger drone such as Joby Aviation’s all-electric vertical take-off and landing (“eVTOL”) aircraft has an estimated noise production of 70 decibels (dB), a noise level equating to “loud traffic”.

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  • Baby Bundle (app)

    Baby Bundle (app)

    Baby Bundle is a parenting mobile app for iPhone and iPad. It was designed to help new parents through pregnancy and the first two years of parenthood. Developed in collaboration with medical experts, it helps track and record the child's development and growth, offers parental advice, manages vaccinations and health check-ups, stores photos and provides baby monitoring services. == History == Baby Bundle was founded in the United Kingdom by brothers, Nick and Anthony von Christierson. Each worked in investment banking prior to developing Baby Bundle, Nick at Greenhill & Co., and Anthony at Goldman Sachs. The idea for the app came when a friend's wife voiced her frustration over having multiple parenting apps on her smartphone. Nick and Anthony left their jobs to create a single app that would include all those features. They conducted market research by interviewing more than 500 parents in the UK and US. It took them a year to build the app, which was named by their mother. Looking for endorsement, they first went to the US in 2013 and partnered with parenting expert and pediatrician Dr. Jennifer Trachtenberg. Baby Bundle was launched in the US and Canadian App Stores in April 2014. In the same month, it became the #1 parenting app in iTunes and was featured by Apple as the #1 Editor's pick across all categories. Mashable called it one of the "Top 5 Can’t Miss Apps." Baby Bundle raised $1.8m seed round in March 2015 to fund development. The money came from a range of angel investors from across the US, UK and Asia. The von Christierson brothers have signed a deal to co-brand the app in the Middle East and expect to launch in Europe and Africa. == Features == Baby Bundle is an app for both the iPhone or iPad and provides smart monitoring tools and trackers for pregnancy and child development. It acts as a growth and daily activity tracker and offers parental advice, manages vaccinations and health check-ups. It has a parenting guide with tips and advice on what to expect when the baby arrives. An interactive forum also lets parents ask questions from others in the community. The app is free and also include paid premium features like the ability to turn two iPhones running into a baby monitor, a cloud service to share the child's data with a spouse and the ability to store data on more than one baby.

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