A working lightsaber became a dream for most Star Wars enthusiasts when they were first introduced to a galaxy far, far away. And Disney could finally turn this sci-fi device into reality at its 14-acre Star Wars Land, as a new patent describes plans for visitors to interact with what looks, feels and behaves like the real thing. The patent describes an'audience interaction projection system' that uses drones to send down beams of light towards the audience, who are given'faux lightsabers' to deflect the laser bolts back at the machine. Disney's latest patent describes an'audience interaction projection system' that uses drones to send down beams of light towards the audience, who are given'faux lightsabers' to deflect the laser bolts. Disney's latest patent describes plans for visitors to interact with what looks, feels and behaves like a real lightsaber.

High-Dimensional Mixed Graphical Models Jie Cheng †, Tianxi Li‡, Elizaveta Levina‡, Ji Zhu‡ † Google, Inc.,‡ Department of Statistics, University of Michigan March 22, 2018 Abstract While graphical models for continuous data (Gaussian graphical models) and discrete data (Ising models) have been extensively studied, there is little work on graphical models for data sets with both continuous and discrete variables (mixed data), which are common in many scientific applications. We propose a novel graphical model for mixed data, which is simple enough to be suitable for high-dimensional data, yet flexible enough to represent all possible graph structures. We develop a computationally efficient regression-based algorithm for fitting the model by focusing on the conditional log-likelihood of each variable given the rest. The parameters have a natural group structure, and sparsity in the fitted graph is attained by incorporating a group lasso penalty, approximated by a weighted lasso penalty for computational efficiency. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method through an extensive simulation study and apply it to a music annotation data set (CAL500), obtaining a sparse and interpretable graphical model relating the continuous features of the audio signal to binary variables such as genre, emotions, and usage associated with particular songs. 1 arXiv:1304.2810v3 Key Words: Conditional Gaussian density, Graphical model, Group lasso, Mixed variables, Music annotation. 1 Introduction Graphical models have proven to be a useful tool in representing the conditional dependency structure of multivariate distributions. The undirected graphical model in particular, sometimes also referred to as the Markov network, has drawn a notable amount of attention over the past decade. In an undirected graphical model, nodes in the graph represent the variables, while an edge between a pair of variables indicates that they are dependent conditional on all other variables. The properties of these models are by now well understood and studied both in the classical and the high-dimensional settings. Both these models can only deal with variables of one kind - either all continuous variables in Gaussian models or all binary variables in the Ising model (extensions of the Ising model to general discrete data, while possible in principle, are rarely used in 2 practice). In many applications, however, data sources are complex and varied, and frequently result in mixed types of data, with both continuous and discrete variables present in the same dataset. In this paper, we will focus on graphical models for this type of mixed data (mixed graphical models).

Reddit is known for many things: lively communities, a dedicated user base, cum boxes, incest. Now, the Elon Musk-and-Peter Thiel-backed nonprofit OpenAI wants to use Reddit's vast array of content as a guide for its new machine learning programs. MIT Technology Review reports that OpenAI has partnered with NVIDIA to use the latter company's new DGX-1 supercomputer to train its deep learning systems both more rapidly and with more data. One way they're going about that, apparently, is by using Reddit, so cross your fingers that the robots don't start spouting abuse and garbage! "One very easy way of always getting our models to work better is to just scale the amount of compute," OpenAI research scientist Andrej Karpathy said in a press release. "So right now, if we're training on, say, a month of conversations on Reddit, we can, instead, train on entire years of conversations of people talking to each other on all of Reddit."

Come join us as we reimagine the world of Sherlock Holmes! We're pleased to partner with the Columbia University Digital Storytelling Lab, IBM and the Made in NY Media Center to present a day long Sherlock Hack that mixes storytelling, the Internet of Things & Artificial Intelligence. Together we'll explore how to harness various Watson APIs and the Bluemix platform to create a number of enchanted objects. This hack is the first in a series of events that will help to inform a special presentation during the New York Film Festival on Oct 1st & 2nd. Work done within the hacks and meetups will become part of a massive connected crime scene that transforms Lincoln Center into a collaborative story and play space.

Elon Musk has a well-documented fear of evil artificial intelligence, so it's no surprise filmmaker Werner Herzog sought him out for Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World. Instead, the tech mogul is worried about A.I. that does whatever it takes to accomplish its task. "The biggest risk is not that A.I. will develop a will of its own," Musk says in a short clip of the new film obtained by Fortune. "But rather it will follow the will of its utility function or optimization function." Herzog, the man who made Grizzly Man, is more attuned to nature than future technologies.

It's entirely possible Werner Herzog could find philosophical wonders and dilemmas making a documentary about your shoe collection, but until then we'll have to settle for this prolific filmmaker's abiding interest in the vastness of humankind's dreams, desires and actions. His latest nonfiction foray is about no less than what's changed life as we know it these last few decades: that coursing, unseen river called the Internet. And though the German auteur claims to be a technophobe, "Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World" is just the kind of percolating, wry probe we need into this fast-moving, digitally monopolizing age. Herzog ("Grizzly Man," "Cave of Forgotten Dreams"), a natural alarmist at the same time he thrives on humanity's boldness and invention, isn't the type of explorer who starts with a pre-arranged idea. What animates "Lo and Behold" is his questioning spirit regarding the Web's journey from host-to-host communications tool devised in a UCLA lab in 1969 to the scarily inter-reliant nervous system of today. But with Herzog's initially chronological approach, there's plenty of humor in the recollections of gray-haired pioneers like Leonard Kleinrock, who mentions how the first machine-to-machine message from the refrigerator-sized computer at UCLA resulted in -- what else? -- a crash.

Drones are already capable of capturing stunning aerial images and videos that wouldn't be possible with grounded cameras. But combining the abilities of these airborne vehicles with 360-degree cameras produces new perspectives that are even more immersive and breathtaking. SkyPixel recently held a competition to calling for artists to submit their most impressive 360-degree aerial images. It honored six standout candidates, which includes three main winners and three recipients of its "Brilliant" prize. Photographer Stanislav Sedov's panorama of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which is shown above, was named the third place winner.

Before we get to the features, let's talk about that design. The egg-like form, and bold colors are striking for sure -- if Ikea did wireless audio, it might look like this. The speaker uses four 40mm drivers to pump out sounds in 360-degrees, and there's a shiny glass touch-sensitive button on top so you can control your music with gestures. Physical controls are old news though, right? Whyd thinks so, and has given the speaker Amazon Echo-like voice control.

Like lots of people who've cut cable TV, I couldn't have done it without Netflix. For a fraction of a typical cable bill, Netflix provides more TV shows, movies, and comedy specials than I have time to watch. And while I sometimes turn to other streaming services (and my over-the-air antenna) for specific content, most evenings I'll just thumb through the Netflix app until I find something that grabs my attention. Apart from not supporting 4K resolution or a voice-control remote control, Roku's latest streaming stick delivers the best price/performance ratio of any media-streaming device on the market. This is precisely how Netflix wants people to behave.

With this month finally seeing the release of No Man's Sky, in which players can investigate and explore a huge universe full of diverse planets, I couldn't help but be reminded that although outer space has always held a fascination for many, there's another largely unexplored area much closer to home – the ocean. Although water makes up about 70% of Earth's surface, it is estimated that humans have only explored around 5% of the seabed. Aquatic legends such as Atlantis, the Bermuda triangle, and the disappearance of the USS Scorpion in 1968 have captured the imaginations of many a budding oceanographer, and as such the depths of the sea are an unknown region still ripe for mythologizing – which is exactly what Abzu does, in the first release from Giant Squid software. Directed by Matt Nava, who worked as art director on Journey and Flower for thatgamecompany, the style is instantly reminiscent of his previous work, with players taking control of a stylised'Diver' character. Dropped into the ocean with little explanation, the first thing you notice is how - no matter how long you spend underwater - there's no air gauge to run out.