How Nissan Will Roll Out Self-Driving Cars: Fricking Lasers

As reported by ReadWrite: It was an improbably futuristic scene: A man standing on a sunbaked tarmac in Irvine, Calif., next to a Nissan Leaf electric car, pushed a button on the hatchback’s key fob. The Leaf, unassisted by human intervention or preprogrammed maps, crawled at about five miles per hour through rows of parked vehicles, detected an SUV pulling out of a space, paused, and allowed the SUV to pull away. Then it moved past the now-vacated parking spot, slowed into position, glided back into the space, and powered down.

A moment later, the man pushed the button again, and the Leaf fetched itself, reversing its previous steps, and returned to the man’s side.

This isn't science fiction. I watched this all myself, dumbfounded, just a little over a week ago.

Was this self-parking demonstration a bit of razzle-dazzle that will never make it into the vehicles in dealer lots? Maybe not.

To witness this scene, I drove 45 miles in a 2014 Infiniti Q50 sedan from LAX to the decommissioned El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. (That's where Nissan held its month-long Nissan 360 technology showcase.) The Q50 was equipped with the luxury car’s $3,200 tech package , which pushes the nicely appointed vehicle’s price over $50,000.

The relevant features of the teched-up Q50 are Intelligent Cruise Control and Active Lane Control. The technology allowed me to travel at highway speeds along short, straight stretches of the 405 and the 5, with my foot off the pedals and my hands at my side.

Take that, Google! The search engine is investing an unknown amount in self-driving cars, and those prototypes have driven millions of miles. Google promises to offer the technology to consumers by 2018, but the Q50 is on sale today.

Proto-Automation

The Q50’s camera located in front of the rearview mirror, along with its image-processing system, can read lines and dashes on the roadway.  When the vehicle gets close to the white paint separating lanes, the car gently nudges the steering wheel in the direction of safety.  But here’s a problem that I experienced: When the car approached the white line to the left, it overcorrected, sending me across the lane to the right-side boundary, where the camera and computer nudged me back again across the lane to the left line.  With my hands off the steering wheel, the Q50 became a careening, 3,500-pound ping-pong ball. 

In fairness, the visual guidance technology in the Q50 is not meant to fully automate driving.  It’s intended to play an assist role, which according to Infiniti—Nissan’s upscale division—reduces driver fatigue and otherwise enhances the vehicle’s luxury feel. It worked as intended.

Similarly, the Q50’s Forward Assist technology was effective.  Set the cruise control to, say, 65 miles per hour, and lift your foot off the accelerator.  That’s plain ol’ cruise control, right?  But thanks to a radar system behind the front bumper, the car can detect the speed of cars ahead in the same lane, and automatically slow down the Q50 to match their pace—all the way down to a complete stop, only to resume acceleration when the car ahead gets going. This is an increasingly common automotive feature, usually called adaptive cruise control.  A related safety feature rapidly and automatically applies brakes when the vehicle in front comes to a screeching halt.

Driving Back to the Future

These early manifestations of autonomous driving technologies already seem unremarkable.  But what’s surprising is that the fully automated Leaf on display in Irvine uses the same exact camera, image-processing technology, and radar found in the Q50.

“To find objects that are approaching from far away very fast, radar is the best technology,” explained Tetsuya Iijima, general manager of intelligent transportation systems engineering at Nissan. “But unlike the driver-assisting features on the Q50, fully automated technology can’t make any excuses to the customer.”
So Iijima and his team of engineers employ more serious automagical mojo: six laser scanners that surround the car.  And not just the fixed broad-beam or one-dimensional lasers already used in auto-safety systems from Continental and other suppliers. These are three-dimensional ones that scan left, right, up, and down, to make a full spatial rendering of all road objects on the fly.  Three radars are still used, one in front and two in back, as well as five cameras that can read speed-limit signs (to modulate speed according to the highway rules) and the color of traffic signals (to know when to stop and go at an intersection). 

Add 12 sonars, and you now have a Leaf electric car that can travel autonomously and safely on highways—and do that cool robotic-parking trick as well.  Iijima demonstrated those two feats in two separate vehicles—each equipped with precisely the same hardware, but programmed for either highway travel or automated parking.  Nissan executives said that these automated features will go on sale in 2020—and will become available a few years later in a wide range of models.

The Secret Sauce: Fricking Laser Scanners

Several carmakers already offer features similar to the ones available in the Infiniti Q50, and are making claims about fully automated driving coming in the not-too-distant future—although most do not give timetables.

The reason Nissan thinks it can set a date is that it has committed to laser technology.
“We believe that we are leading this technology," said Iijima. "Other companies still have not decided to use a laser scanner. We have come to the conclusion that laser scanners are required. The image is a regular three-dimensional picture. Each point has depth information.”

The Google car uses a relatively large roof-mounted LIDAR system, using 64 lasers in a spinning 360-degree turret to create a high-resolution map accurate to about 11 centimeters, according to Popular Science.   The autonomous Leaf embeds six fixed laser scanners—around the car in corner body panels and into rear-passenger doors—each one providing resolution to 1 centimeter, according to Nissan.

Iijima declined to identify the companies that Nissan is considering to supply the three-dimensional laser hardware or what it might cost. Nissan is developing its own software that filters all the various inputs, and integrates the data into steering-wheel position, acceleration levels, and braking. It’s Big Data on wheels. The intricate integration of hardware and software will take an alliance of companies, according to Iijima.

But Nissan has ruled out one type of technology, at least for the next few years—intelligent GPS-based geographical mapping, in the vein of Google Maps or Nokia’s Here. The info gathered from those mapping services is not detailed enough, according to Iijima. Also forget vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-infrastructure communications that will take decades to penetrate across enough cars and roadways to become useful.

The cool self-parking car, unlike similar systems unveiled from Audi and Volvo, does not require GPS or any sensors or transmitters applied to the pavement.  Instead, as Iijima believes, vehicle automation should work with on-board sensors.  (Nonetheless, Nissan is working on a parallel development using precise maps that will enable cars to run autonomously in more challenging city environments.)  For now, Nissan is only talking about tackling the simpler challenge of highway driving and automated parking.

The Beginning Of The End Of Driving

Iijima outlined some limitations to the system: a max speed of 80 miles per hour and difficulty in extreme weather conditions, like a snowstorm.  He said that his work now focused on increasing processing power, reducing cost, and shrinking the size of the hardware that currently occupies the entire hatch space—down to about the size of a shoebox that could fit into the engine compartment.

The software, which Nissan developed in-house with unnamed partners, is not unusual.

“It’s C++,” Iijima said with a chuckle.  And ironically, the most important required infrastructure is … white paint.  “The white line defines the road,” he said.  “It’s minimal infrastructure.”

What’s at stake with this program?  Big stuff. The promise of zero fatalities.  The ability for elderly and disabled people to gain mobility.  More efficient use of fuel and roadways.  And nothing less than a complete transformation of the relationship between car and driver.

“When the driver is no longer necessary, there is no need for cars to be owned by individuals,” he said. He envisions a world of shared autonomous mobility robots roaming global roadways by 2030.  Yet, there’s no single finish line set to be crossed in the distant future, but rather a slow and steady supplanting of human drivers by onboard computers, cameras, radar, sonar and lasers.

80% of Location Data in Top Mobile Ad Exchanges is Inaccurate

As reported by GPS Business News: Location-powered ad exchange Verve has published last week a new report where it brings together key findings of its location-based advertising campaigns.

According to them 80 percent of lat/long ad requests found today in major ad exchanges are rubbish and made out of lesser quality data such as Geo-IP or ZIP code in an attempt by publishers to make bigger revenue out of their - poor quality - 'inventory'.

In a comparative test campaign Verve experienced a Clock-Through-Rate of 1.04% with verified location data versus 0.23% with unverified location data.

Other key findings from the report include:

- Retail is the number one category utilizing location powered advertising. The top three types of retailers using location powered advertising are big box, consumer electronics, and department stores.

 - Geo-fencing, which includes geo-conquesting, is the number one most utilized location targeting strategy deployed by retailers. 

- Driving foot traffic to stores is the number one objective for retailers leveraging location-based mobile advertising. 

- For retailers, proximity impacts mobile ad performance, the sweet spot for ads served being between 1 and 6 miles.

FDA to Focus on Apps That Turn Smartphones Into Medical Devices

A MIM Software app that allows doctors to view X-rays
and MRIs on smartphones and tablets was one of
the first to win FDA approval. (MIM Software photo / September 23, 2013)

As reported by Reuters: The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that it will focus on mobile medical apps that have the potential to harm consumers if they do not function properly.

The FDA, which issued final rules on the apps Monday, has cleared about 100 over the past decade, including products that can diagnose abnormal heart rhythms or help patients monitor their blood sugar. About 40 were cleared within the past two years.

The agency said it will not regulate the sale or general consumer use of smartphones or tablets or mobile app distributors such as the iTunes store or Google Play store.

It will, however, focus enforcement on products that transform smartphones into devices the agency currently regulates, such as electrocardiography machines that can determine whether a patient is having a heart attack.

The FDA will also focus on apps that would be used as an accessory to a regulated device, such as one that displays images used by physicians to make specific diagnoses. 

Google Adds Remote Lock and Password Reset Features to Android Device Manager

As reported by the Verge: Android users can now remotely lock down a misplaced or stolen device from the web. Google has rolled this critical feature into Android Device Manager, which launched last month with location tracking and remote wipe functionality. Now the web tool lets you lock any Android smartphone running version 2.2 of the operating system and above.

To do so, you'll simply need to set a new password to be entered once the device is recovered. This can be different from your regular lock screen PIN, so even if that password is compromised, you can override it with a new one.

Google is actively discouraging users from re-using their main Google credentials, however.

A lock request will immediately secure any device connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network — even if it's actively being used. 

If a thief has turned off a phone or enabled Airplane Mode, the lock will take effect as soon as a data connection is reestablished. And should your beloved smartphone prove unretrievable, there's always the last-ditch measure of wiping its memory entirely.

Gecko Bluetooth tags act as motion and location triggers for your mobile

As reported by Engadget: What you see above isn't a fancy pick -- it's a gesture control peripheral called 'Gecko' designed to do a lot more than strum a guitar. 

According to its creators, each action the coin-sized gadget makes can correspond to a phone function, so long as the two are connected via Bluetooth. 

You could, for instance, configure your device loaded with the accompanying iOS or Android app to make an emergency call whenever you shake Gecko once. However, they claim that it also has many potential offbeat uses, such as notifying you when someone moves your bag or helping you find lost pets, kids or, worse, keys. 

Of course, that'll only work if you tag your items with it, but anyone with a hyperactive five-year-old wouldn't mind improvising a necklace out of it. Don't expect to find one at a local mall, though -- Gecko's merely an Indiegogo project at the moment, hoping to raise $50,000 to start mass production.  A video on the product can be found here.

 

GPS/GNSS Spoofing Test Bed to be Developed

As reported by Marine Link: Spirent Communications, has teamed up with Qascom to develop a test tool that reproduces spoofing attacks in a controlled laboratory environment. They say that their collaborative solution will be launched commercially later in 2013.

The test bed will concurrently simulate legitimate GPS/GNSS constellations and spoofed or hoax signals. It will enable positioning systems manufacturers to improve their products’ resilience to hoax signals.

As GPS/GNSS becomes increasingly embedded in modern infrastructure for application timing and device positioning, the impact of spoofing attacks becomes greater. From mobile telephony to Internet banking, GNSS timing signals are used in many key systems, and yet there is no requirement on GNSS equipment to demonstrate any degree of robustness to block or even detect malicious attacks that disrupt performance.

“There is growing industry concern about the vulnerability of satellite navigation signals,” said John Pottle, Marketing Director of Spirent’s Positioning Division. “This will help the industry to create positioning systems that are more resilient to interference.”

Hoax or spoofing attacks work by mimicking genuine GNSS signals, which mislead GNSS receivers. Often affected receivers do not recognize when they are receiving fake signals and continue to operate normally, but provide false time or position information. This new test tool helps to develop systems that will detect and counter spoofing attacks by providing a fully controllable laboratory based, non-radiated test solution to evaluate a receiver’s response to a range of spoofing attacks.

The test tool controls the emulation of signals representing both the genuine GNSS signals and the false signals. This allows users to simulate a wide range of sophisticated attacks and monitor the response of the receiver under attack to then improve the resilience of the design against such attacks.

Cyber-poachers Hack GPS Collar Data to Pinpoint Tigers

As reported by Times of India: Considering their long history as a favorite target among poachers, it's not surprising that Bengal tigers are now among the planet's most elusive creatures. But while most illegal hunters faced long days of bushwhacking through the dark jungle in hopes of spotting the big cat before it finds them, a dangerous new breed of cyber-savvy poachers may be on the rise -- using conservation tools to help target their illicit prey.

Wildlife officials responsible for monitoring the species in the Satpura-Bori tiger reserve say that their computer systems were recently hacked to collect data from a tiger's GPS collar. The cyber crime, the first of its kind, would allow the poachers real-time data on where the animals were within the reserve, eliminating the dangerous work of tracking them down.

The Times of India reports that location data on at least one collared tiger, identified as Panna-211, may have been compromised. Normally, access to such sensitive information is strictly limited; only three wildlife specialists possess passcodes to view the GPS tracking data.

Since the perpetrator is yet unknown, nor the viability of the hacked information, officials say they will be closely monitoring Panna-211's movement for the next 6 months.

As many iconic endangered species continue to decline due to poaching, conservationists have increasingly begun turning to high-tech tools to aid in their protection. In wrong hands, however, the information could be immensely valuable to criminals with the opposite intention.