Topps Blog

Thursday, 2 March 2023

Ford Applies for Patent to Let Cars Repossess Themselves

(Credit: Dan Dennis/Unsplash) Picture this: You’ve fallen on hard times, and you haven’t been able to make your last few car payments. When you step out of your home to head toward your car, you don’t see the fabled “repo man”; instead, you see your car back out of its parking spot and make its way down the street, never to be seen again. That’s the goal of Ford, which has applied for a patent involving an autonomous repossession method that would allow cars to drive themselves off of private property.

Ford filed the patent application with the US Trademark and Patent Office in the summer of 2021, but the document was only published last week as part of the review process. Titled “Systems and Methods to Repossess a Vehicle,” the application summarizes a system that would autonomize the repossession process. First, a computer (likely associated with a financing agency) would send a message to the purchaser or lessee of a vehicle informing them of their delinquency. This message would contain a request to confirm receipt.

If the purchaser or lessee doesn’t acknowledge receipt of the delinquency notice, Ford’s system would kick the vehicle into repo mode. This could entail any number of cutoff methods. Ford’s application says the system could disable individual functions, such as the vehicle’s air conditioner or radio. It could also place the vehicle in a “lockout condition” that could only be bypassed for medical emergencies. Although this exception was surely placed to avoid future legal ramifications, Ford writes that the vehicle’s cameras would need to capture a medical emergency in order to unlock, which surely creates more legal complexity than it solves.

(Credit: Jessy Smith/Unsplash)

Should these methods prove inefficient, Ford writes that its repo system could “autonomously move the vehicle from the premises of the owner to a location such as…the premises of the repossession agency, the premises of the lending institution, or an impound [lot].” In some cases, if the repo system’s computer determines the vehicle’s market value is exceptionally low, it would drive the vehicle to a junkyard instead.

If your head is already spinning with ways to stop Ford’s repo system in its tracks, Ford is one step ahead of you. The automaker’s patent application mentions that attempts to block repossession would be captured by the vehicle’s cameras and transmitted to local law enforcement.

Ford ends its application on what it likely believes to be an optimistic note, saying that resolving payment delinquency would cause the vehicle’s lockout condition to expire. From a consumer perspective, most of us—even those of us who are current on our car payments or don’t have to make payments at all—can only be optimistic that the technology won’t be implemented. When the Detroit Free Press reached out to Ford about whether it plans to use the system (if it’s patented at all), the automaker declined to comment.

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Nvidia RTX 4080, RTX 4070 Ti Debut in the Steam Hardware Survey

Valve’s hardware survey has always been a fascinating look at what gear gamers prefer. It’s only a sliver of the market, but it’s insightful as a snapshot in time. Valve has updated its survey with results from February 2023 with some new entrants. Most notable is the arrival of the RTX 4080 and 4070 Ti. Their appearance in the survey is a sign of their popularity as they were launched very recently. The 4080 came out in November, with the 4070 Ti on sale in January. In contrast, AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT have yet to appear in the survey. The Radeon cards launched in mid-December, though, so it hasn’t been that long.

Regarding Ada Lovelace GPUs, the RTX 4090 was the first to appear in the Steam survey despite its exorbitant price of $1,599. According to TechSpot, it arrived in January. This god-mode GPU has now captured 0.30% of the Steam audience, making it the most-used RTX 40-series GPU. Right behind it is the RTX 4080–at $1,200, it’s priced more reasonably but has been criticized for being $500 more expensive than its predecessor. They are relatively easy to find online, too, aside from the Founders Edition, that is. According to Steam’s results, the 4080 now holds 0.19% of the audience. Finally, there’s the RTX 4070 Ti, which has an MSRP of $799. It’s grabbed 0.17% of the Steam crowd.

All the top scores from Steam’s hardware survey give us the specs of a midrange PC. (Image: Steam)

Given how long the cards have been available, those numbers are small but reasonably impressive. For example, the RTX 3090 has been out for over two years and only has a 0.50% share. The previous Turing flagship GPU, the RTX 2080 Ti, only has 0.43%.

The most-used GPU is still the GTX 1650, a $200 GPU with just 4GB of RAM. However, it makes sense since 1080p is still the most popular gaming resolution. Overall the big movers last month were Ampere 30-series GPUs. The RTX 3060, 3060 Ti, and 3070 all made gains. These are easy to find now and are great midrange GPUs. The RTX 2060 is still doing well, as is the GTX 1060 from six years ago.

One thing that stands out in the chart is Nvidia’s dominance. AMD doesn’t even appear until the 14th slot with integrated graphics. The most popular discrete AMD GPU is the Radeon RX 580, with 1.06% of the audience. The Radeon 6600, 6600 XT, and 6700 XT also saw their numbers rise by a measly 0.1% in February.

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Blizzard Reveals Modest PC Requirements for Diablo IV With No Ray Tracing

After more than a decade, gamers are gearing up to experience the next chapter in the Diablo saga. Diablo IV is currently slated for a June release, and the pre-order beta starts later this month. The developers have hosted a second live stream with information about the game, including the PC system requirements. Diablo IV isn’t going to push the envelope on hardware, asking for surprisingly modest specs. Perhaps as a result, Blizzard says ray tracing is not going to be supported at this time.

The game will eat up a mere 45GB of storage space, but the minimum specs do call for an SSD. You’ll also need at least an Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD FX-8100 and 8GB of RAM. On the GPU side, Diablo IV requires an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon R9 280 or newer. Interestingly, the GTX 660 launched just a few months after Diablo 3 in 2012. Blizzard says the game might still run on even less powerful PCs, but it cannot make any promises.

If you want a better experience, the recommended specs include a marginally newer Core i5-4670K or AMD R3-1300X and 16GB of RAM. To max settings, you’ll need a GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 470. Again, these are older GPUs that all of today’s midrange cards can best. Naturally, console players don’t have to worry about specs — the game will launch on both Xbox Series X/S and PS5, and it sounds like it’ll run pretty well.

The developer stream also discussed what players can expect from the upcoming play tests, which will be open to those with a pre-order. The beta runs from March 17 to March 20, and the open beta is from March 24 to March 27. Progressing to select points in the game will grant special in-game titles and cosmetics that carry over to the final game. The beta will also debut Diablo’s new world boss system. These pivotal battles support up to 12 players, and four of them will occur on both Saturdays during the tests.

It’s not all good news, though. Despite ray tracing becoming increasingly common in AAA game releases, Blizzard has confirmed this feature will not be included during the beta or at release. Ray tracing simulates the physical properties of light to create a more realistic environment, and we’ve seen what that can do even for an older game like Portal or Half-Life. Blizzard says it has plans to add optional ray tracing at some point in the future. Given the company’s apparent desire to make Diablo IV work on as many systems as possible, this is an understandable limitation.

If you want to explore the updated Sanctuary as soon as possible, you can pre-order Diablo IV for the platform of your choice, starting at $70. You could spend up to $90 with an included battle pass and extra cosmetics.

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New Apple Patent Details Novel Handoff Method for Its Upcoming XR Headset

(Photo: Apple headset render via Antonio DeRosa) It’s no secret that Apple has worked hard on an extended reality (XR) headset for many years. The device, rumored to be Reality Pro, has been repeatedly delayed due to myriad engineering challenges. Now it’s rumored to be launching sometime in 2023. As proof that it’s getting close, the company recently submitted a new patent filing in Europe for its upcoming headset. The patent details how to perform handoff and continuity in an extended reality environment, allowing you to pass tasks between Apple devices such as an iPad and an iPhone. The patents indicate how it would work with Apple devices and a headset.

The patent was filed on Feb. 22 in Europe, according to Patentlyapple. As 9to5Mac notes, patent filings can be vague to throw people off, but this one is clear. “Multi-device continuity for use with extended reality systems” begins with a rudimentary explanation of how continuity would work. This technology lets you start creating or editing a document on one device, such as an iPad. You can then transfer that document to a MacBook or iPhone and pick up where you left off. The document exists in the cloud and is accessible by all devices. With a headset, the process essentially involves looking at the device to initiate the transfer.

In this drawing, the shape in the lower right-hand corner is the XR device being “aware” of other devices around it.

Per the patent filing, “a user drafting an email on their smartphone can place the smartphone in the field of view of an XR device (e.g., a tablet device or a head mountable system) and continue drafting the email in an XR environment created by the XR device. “This assumes Apple’s device has outward-facing cameras and microphones, along with a transparent display so you can see your surroundings. This also raises the question of how you would even edit a document on a headset. We can guess that Apple’s headset can project a virtual keyboard. Or it may be gesture-based or voice-controlled.

The patent describes a similarly simple method for “handoff” involving a “smart speaker.” The patent says you could start playing a song on your phone, then send it to the speaker with a gesture. The XR device would be aware of all devices in the environment. It would then use this information to “facilitate smooth and continuous transfer of control and/or content between the devices and/or the XR device.”

What is described in the document certainly sounds very Apple because it’s intuitive. However, these examples don’t sound particularly useful in the real world like many virtual reality scenarios. We doubt anyone would prefer to edit a document wearing a headset and using a virtual keyboard instead of a laptop. Also, why are we wearing a headset if we’re listening to music? Maybe Apple will make it more compelling than it sounds on paper. We’ll find out soon enough, as the device is expected to be unveiled at WWDC in June.

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How NASA Scientists Study the Origin of Life By Simulating Primordial Earth

Today, life and the byproducts thereof inhabit every nook and cranny of Earth, but there was a time when nothing lived on our home planet. Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) studying the origins of life successfully simulated an important pre-biotic chemical reaction last year. JPL is talking about the work that went into that research and how we might study the origins of life in the future.

In 2022, researchers from JPL’s Origins and Habitability Lab confirmed they had simulated an important metabolic reaction in a closed environment intended to resemble the conditions on primordial Earth. This reaction, the chemical reduction of a molecule called NAD+ with iron sulfide minerals, shows how the processes we associate with life can arise from a non-living geochemical system. But this is just one small piece of the puzzle, and it was no simple feat to do.

Life permeates every part of JPL’s laboratories. NASA accidentally demonstrated that when it tried to produce ultra-clean sample tubes for Perseverance, only to find that removing all hydrocarbon evidence of life changes the way metal components fit together. To simulate Earth 4 billion years ago, researchers have to create small isolated pockets of primordial atmosphere. That means no oxygen, which is a fundamental component of most life today. But Earth had negligible oxygen in its atmosphere before the appearance of life.

The Origins and Habitability Lab uses a “glove box” about the size of your average vending machine (see above) to create such an environment. The interior is sealed to keep oxygen out — researchers need to use a small airlock to add and remove items. Using the built-in gloves, scientists can run experiments protected from Earth’s atmosphere. However, all the instruments used to evaluate the results also need to fit inside the box, and there’s only room for one person to work at a time.

This illustration of early Earth includes liquid water as well as magma seeping from the planet’s core due to a large impact. Credit: Simone Marchi

It took months for the team to demonstrate the NAD+ reaction in the lab, but as JPL research scientist Laurie Barge says, “science is all about repetition.” The team is currently examining more parts of the metabolic process in this environment, hoping to find a step somewhere in the mix that can only occur inside a protective membrane. We know that simple lipid membranes can self-assemble, and understanding which metabolic process require that sort of environment can help scientists nail down when membranes first developed.

Astrobiology researchers at JPL look forward to a time when we have a better understanding of nearby planets and moons. It’s possible that a lifeless world could have similar conditions as a young Earth, making it an ideal place to test hypotheses about the origins of life on a scale far beyond a glove box. Not only would this help explain the origins of life on Earth, but it could also show scientists what to expect when hunting for life on other planets.

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The Moon Could Get Its Own Time Zone As Lunar Missions Multiply

(Credit: NASA, via Johnson Space Center Flickr) When we refer to time-sensitive events, we tend to refer to them within the context of their relevant time zones. It’s important to know that you’ll be able to watch a live-streamed event in Los Angeles at 3 p.m. Pacific Standard Time or in Tokyo at 9 a.m. Japan Standard Time. But despite the Moon’s distance from any particular time zone here on Earth, space agencies have so far described lunar expeditions in terms of their own time zones.

Some space organizations are calling for a change. In a statement Monday, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced a joint effort to establish a time zone for the Moon. The common framework, called LunaNet, will encapsulate “mutually agreed-upon standards, protocols, and interface requirements allowing future lunar missions to work together.”

The effort is partly inspired by comments made at the ESA’s ESTEC technology center last year. Organizations expressed interest in “defining a common lunar reference time,” which would be used to standardize the way public space agencies and private entities tell time on the Moon.

(Credit: Cristóbal Alvarado Minic/Wikimedia Commons)

Organizations have historically used their own terrestrial time zones to qualify lunar events. The ESA says that deep space antennas have allowed organizations to keep onboard chronometers synchronized with time measurements here on Earth, which is crucial to facilitating two-way communications. But as more organizations plan their lunar missions, this method could become messy. If and when two organizations are on or around the Moon simultaneously, they’ll need to communicate with one another, and using different time zones will make this confusing. Interoperability takes these complications to the next level: It’s hard to coordinate with someone when they’re using a different time zone, especially when events need to be timed down to the minute or second.

Setting a “lunar time zone” won’t be easy, though. Clocks on the Moon run faster than what we consider normal here on Earth, gaining about 56 microseconds daily. This itself isn’t consistent; how much faster these clocks run depends on their exact position on the Moon, causing organizations to wonder whether the Moon’s time zone should be kept independent from Earth.

An agreed-upon time system will also require organizations to settle on a selenocentric reference frame, which maintains a consistent measurement of precise differences between given points. Organizations have done this before for the sake of global navigation satellite systems, or GNSS, but this time, their reference frame will need to be practical for astronauts orbiting near or directly exploring the Moon.

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First AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX Benchmarks Beat Intel’s While Using Less Power

(Photo: Notebookcheck.net) Both Intel and AMD are almost done battling with their new desktop architectures. One more X3D V-Cache CPU is still coming out in April, but aside from that, both companies have all their chips on the table [Seriously? -Ed.]. With the desktop portion of this battle wrapped up, the next front in this skirmish is on mobile. Intel has already launched its high-powered HX series of mobile CPUs. AMD has taken a bit more time, though, and is just now starting to send laptops to reviewers with its latest silicon. Now we have the first benchmarks for AMD’s mobile flagship. Although it loses to Intel in single-core performance, it beats it in multi-core benchmarks. Even more impressive, it does so while consuming less power.

The notebook review site Notebookcheck.net tested an Asus laptop sporting AMD’s top-tier Dragon Range CPU. This is a 16-core, 32-thread CPU dubbed Ryzen 9 7945HX. It can boost a single core to 5.4GHz, and its base clock is 2.5GHz. The CPU has 64MB of L3 cache and a TDP of 55W, though it can go as high as 75W if a vendor wants to do so. However, the reviewer states it can consume up to 120W when all 16 Zen 4 cores are under full load. In the blue corner is Intel’s Core i9-13980HX. This is its flagship Raptor Lake mobile CPU with 24 cores and 32 threads (8P+16E). It can boost a single core a bit higher than AMD’s chip, running at 5.6GHz. However, it also consumes more power. Intel says it can guzzle 157W with all cores engaged.

In testing, Intel’s CPU edged out the Zen 4 CPU in single-threaded benchmarks, including 7-Zip, Cinebench, etc. The delta between the two was roughly 3%, due mainly to Intel’s higher boost clock speed of 5.6GHz. It uses more power as well. The site estimates the Zen 4 cores consumed around 27W of power, with the P-cores in the 13980HX requiring 34-36W. The Ryzen 9 7945HX is also 27% faster in single-core performance than its predecessor, the Zen 3+ Ryzen 9 6900HX. That’s an impressive uplift.

When it comes to multi-core performance, though, the tables turn. The Ryzen 9 7945HX nudged past Intel’s CPU by a small margin through a range of multi-core benchmarks. For example, in Cinebench R23, AMD’s chip scored 34,521 compared with the Core i9’s score of 33,052. It also achieved that victory using less power, as it tops out at 120W. The reviewers estimate the Raptor Lake CPU will suck down around 180 to 190W under full load.

AMD’s 7000 series mobile lineup. (Image: AMD)

To even the playing field, they also ran the Core i9 at the same wattage as the Ryzen CPU for an apples-to-apples comparison. Lowering the amount of power the Intel CPU can receive will impact performance, making the comparison more interesting. In that scenario, the Core i9-13980HX achieved a Cinebench score of 28,333 compared with AMD’s original 34,521 score. That’s a 21% percent delta at the same power draw, so a convincing win for AMD.

The news isn’t all bad for Intel, though. The site also ran gaming tests at 1080p and found the Intel CPUs topping the charts with the same RTX 4090 GPU. The Ryzen 9 7945X placed just mid-pack overall, likely due to its lower power consumption. Still, AMD’s Dragon Range will be a formidable CPU for high-end gaming laptops. What its RDNA 3 mobile GPUs will offer remains to be seen, but they’re not expected to challenge the RTX 40-series at high resolutions. When it announced them at CES, the specs indicated they were made for midrange laptops, as the two top-tier GPUs have a 128-bit memory interface and 8GB of VRAM.

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