This past Wednesday, Senate minority leader, Tom Cotton, wrote a letter expressing concerns about the new popular social media app ‘TikTok’ to the Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire. There are concerns revolving around national security because the Chinese app is becoming increasing popular in the United States. TikTok is owned by a larger Beijing tech company, ByteDance, that also has several other platforms. According to the letter, “ByteDance regards its platforms as part of an artificial intelligence company powered by algorithms that ‘learn’ each user’s interests and preferences through repeat interaction.”

In the letter, specific concerns focus around the application’s terms of service and censorship. In the United States alone, TikTok has over 110 million downloads and counting. In the terms of service, it describes how the app actively collects user data through a variety of different methods. Additionally, it is clear that there is some level of censorship on that app that is similar to that of the Chinese government. For example, content regarding the Hong Kong Protests, Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, and more is censored.

I found this article extremely interesting, especially since it has a lot to do with topics we have discussed in class such as data privacy, artificial intelligence, data security, and the current environment in China. There is a lot of concern revolving around TikTok, specifically being used as counterintelligence by the Chinese government. This reminded me a lot of the Chinese breech to Penn State’s network that we talked about in class too. It is interesting how technology plays such a large role in security today. I am curious to see how the investigation plays out and what other implications it might have for the future.

Source: https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/10232019%20TikTok%20Letter%20-%20FINAL%20PDF.pdf?utm_source=morning_brew

In class this week, we discussed virtual reality and how it is becoming more popular in society today. The definition of virtual reality is very interesting. It takes the definitions of virtual and reality as we experience them as people, and explains the virtual reality is often referred to as “near reality (Para 1).” Virtual Reality tackles our sense of balance and other sensory inputs, which includes our brain sense-making mechanism. Because we experience our reality through our sensory inputs, not exclusive of our five senses, it makes it possible to present us with a made up version of our reality. Since majority of how we experience our reality is through our sensory input, our body has the ability to change itself to adapt and change to a new reality, for example, a virtual place or environment (Para 2 – 3).

The technical definition of virtual reality is slightly different then the basic understanding of virtual reality. The technical term of virtual reality is “a three-dimensional, computer generated environment,” which can interact with a person who is placed in the environment. While in this environment the person is able to manipulate objects placed into the environment (Para 4). In today’s society, we are often exposed to virtual reality through a computer system, which has the user wear a headset of sorts, gloves, or runs/walks on a treadmill that is attach to a headset (Para 6). However, there are difficulties with the virtual environment.

Since our body reacts to what is around it, if something in the virtual reality environment is a little off, our body will be able to point it out. Add on to some items being off, our vision is not of a video frame, we are able to see in our peripheral vision, which you cannot see in a virtual reality environment. Because of this small change, this can cause a person to become nauseous in the virtual reality system (Para 7).

In today’s society, people are often focused on the virtual reality of video games, however, there are also virtual reality systems. These can be seen in architecture, medicine, entertainment, sports, and the arts (Para 8). I believe that VR will continue to become popular and be used in more areas of jobs, particularly in government agencies.

What are your thoughts about VR? Would you be willing to try it?

https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/what-is-virtual-reality.html

Toyota announced that they will provide the electric self-driving bus e-Palette at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to help transport athletes back and forth. In 2018, Toyota debuted the Mobility as a Service e-Palette Concept and proposes the concept of “mobile box”, also known as the multi-functional fully automatic mobile vehicle. Under the fascinating autonomous driving technology, this will become a tool for mass transportation in the future. Aside from transporting passengers, services such as delivery couriers, hotels, takeaways, restaurants, laboratories, or personal mobile offices are all available via this mobile box as well.

The e-Palette Concept is built by Toyota to achieve the Mobility Services Platform (MSPF). It is designed with spacious cabin space, low chassis, and is available in three different sizes. The e-Palette Concept prototype that was debuted in the 2018 CES conference is 4.8 meters long, 2 meters wide and 2.25 meters long. In addition, the split-type automatic side sliding door and low floor are designed to provide barrier-free services. As for the layout of the car room, it can be customized according to the purpose of the cooperation merchant or the user. The e-Palette Concept uses symmetrical box design and smaller tires to increase indoor space. It is equipped with a photographic lens and a sensor such as LiDAR (optical radar) combined with high-precision 3D maps for low-speed autopilot. The self-driving bus can detect obstacles holistically at 360 degrees without dead ends and operates at an optimum speed that depends on the environment.

In addition, the photographic lens and sensor that are required for the e-Palette Concept autopilot system can be mounted on the roof of the vehicle. When the system is abnormal, it is equipped with a brake to stop the vehicle safely. Moreover, it is equipped with headlights and rear lights that show the state of the vehicle to the surrounding pedestrians during the automatic driving process.

As a model of this avant-garde transportation concept, e-Palette will run for the first time at the Tokyo Olympics. Although the e-Palette is only used for transportation, Toyota said it will use its accumulated knowledge to develop the e-Palette for further utilizations in the future. I can’t wait to see e-Palette self-driving buses next year! 

Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nargessbanks/2018/01/10/toyota-e-palette-ces2018/#6a07f0565368

https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/8/16863092/toyota-e-palette-self-driving-car-ev-ces-2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmoPQuMlOYE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4WqsKSKpGk

https://www.autorentalnews.com/321408/toyota-creates-mobility-service-for-ride-hailing-companies

https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/corporate/29933371.html

https://www.dezeen.com/2019/10/14/toyota-e-palette-tokyo-2020-olympics/

Since the talk about drones delivering products from Amazon, other companies have considered the same system. A drone delivery system offers speed unlike any other method of shipping that exists at the moment. Within this article it has been stated that there are already examples of practical usage for drone deliveries. One of those being 20,000 deliveries of medical supplies to Rwanda and Ghana via drone and over 1,100 medical samples being flew out throughout North Carolina to various hospitals. According to Bala Ganesh, the head of UPS technology team, deliveries could be made within five to ten minutes of the order. This speed and distance is extraordinary and seems to be working at the moment. But this is all special government lead projects. It’s hard to tell if these drones could handle the backlash to becoming a mainstream mode of delivery. A new interesting voice in the drone delivery industry is CVS. Talks of delivering medicine to people’s homes has started within the pharmacutical company. At this point in time, the only information on the topic is that these drones would fly a package maximum of five pounds on an automated map to a customers house, while being monitored by a human incase there is an issue where human interaction is needed. For me many questions pop up. One being if they would deliver prescription medicine or mediciines such as sudafed that can be made to use drugs such as meth. If so how would they protect against this type of medicine from being stolen and used in a bad way or prescription medicines misused or sold. This being a new potential form of delivery still has many precautions to consider before being put into action.

link: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/21/tech/cvs-ups-drone/index.html

The digital divide is the name given to the uneven distribution of access to technology across the globe. Due to the typically high value of computers and other electronic devices, poverty and financial struggles are usually to blame for this discrepancy. If not just a cost concern, many people either simply don’t care to use the technology or are uninformed on how to use the technology, which is an issue within itself. One main issue surrounding the digital divide is the unequal access to information, which is extremely relevant in many of today’s education systems. Penn State for example utilizes software like Canvas and Lionpath to inform students of assignments which they will then complete and later submit online.
Students with access currently have a competitive advantage over those who do not for a couple of reasons; a) they have access to unlimited information via connection to the internet and b) they are able to engage in society through use of this modern technology – we are becoming a very tech-oriented world and this knowledge is important especially regarding job opportunities and future employment. That being said, if those in substandard places don’t gain access to the same modern technologies, they will ultimately be stuck in a rut (in poverty and unable to afford technology, therefore unable to use technology, therefore does not obtain a job and is unable to make money to provide for themselves or their children (future generations)).

What are the possible solutions to this issue?

How can we make access to information and communication technologies more affordable?

References:

5 Ways the Digital Divide Effects Education

‘In computer programming, pandas is a software library written for the Python programming language for data manipulation and analysis. In particular, it offers data structures and operations for manipulating numerical tables and time series. It is free software released under the three-clause BSD license.^[2] The name is derived from the term “panel data“, an econometrics term for data sets that include observations over multiple time periods for the same individuals.’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandas_(software))

Here is the features of pandas

‘

• DataFrame object for data manipulation with integrated indexing.
• Tools for reading and writing data between in-memory data structures and different file formats.
• Data alignment and integrated handling of missing data.
• Reshaping and pivoting of data sets.
• Label-based slicing, fancy indexing, and subsetting of large data sets.
• Data structure column insertion and deletion.
• Group by engine allowing split-apply-combine operations on data sets.
• Data set merging and joining.
• Hierarchical axis indexing to work with high-dimensional data in a lower-dimensional data structure.
• Time series-functionality: Date range generation^[4] and frequency conversion, moving window statistics, moving window linear regressions, date shifting and lagging.
• Provides data filtration.

‘

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandas_(software))

When we use pandas in python, we should first prepare the tools: import pandas; then use read methods to read the data; building a model; evaluating the model; make prediction.

reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandas_(software)

The article, “UK Scraps Plan to Enforce Age Checks on Pornography Websites,” is about the UK government’s idea to have an age verification restriction on pornography sites. However, this plan was not followed through and thrown to the wolves. The government’s idea was for people to prove their age by showing their government issued IDs, credit cards, passports, etc; there would be a need to verify legitimate proof of age. Furthermore, if a website did not follow these guidelines, they would have been blocked by the UK internet service providers. However, the UK government is not enforcing these restrictions and dropped all of these plans. People criticized all of these ideas. These people claimed that this can create a massive hacking target for blackmailers. They will continue to allow people of any age be able to watch pornography. It will never be known whether this could have been helpful for children under the age of 18 or detrimental. 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2220220-uk-scraps-plan-to-enforce-age-checks-on-pornography-websites/

Emojis have been around for years and allows people to express themselves using something other than words. It all started with emoticons and progressed from there. The first emoji was created in Japan in 1999 and became extremely popular. Since then, their popularity has exploded and became its own language to communicate with people. 

In the article, “One of The New 2019 Emojis Might Make You Physically Yawn,” Stan Horaczek discusses the new emojis being released this upcoming year. Furthermore, some of these new emojis include options for same-sex couples and gender neutreal cartoons. The goal of these were so that more people could be represented and express themselves more than ever through texts, blog posts, etc. The article continues into discusses the most popular emoji that came out which is the yawning emoji. It jokes about how the emoji is contagious and can actually make people in real life yawn! 

https://www.popsci.com/new-2019-emojis-yawn/

https://www.wired.com/story/guide-emoji/