Computer scientists from the Michigan Technological University have presented a new research that studies the different ways one could type into a virtual reality space also called as VR. They conducted a presentation at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems and stated that while texting has become an integral part of our digital lives, it is an area of research that has surprisingly less emphasis in the development of Virtual Reality.

Scott Kuhl, who is an associate professor of computer science at Michigan Tech, stated that many people are purchasing head-mounted displays for mostly video games and they are trying to figure out how the head-mounted displays can be used in an office for writing or editing a document or emailing someone.

These ordinary tasks are not yet ideal in Virtual Reality, but by making the user wear a headset that resembles a sleeping mask that’s oversized, Virtual Reality can transport the user in a surreal place which can be anywhere in the world. The trick lies in creating a balance between visuals on the head-mounted display and what can be touched physically by the person. Both the aspects are required for the purpose of typing.

Head-Mounted Display

Also researching with Kuhl was James Walker, a computer science lecturer, for the purpose of his dissertation. He said that the challenge lied in the fact that the user needed to see what they were typing and that was difficult with a headset mounted over the eyes.

So as a solution to this he developed a light-up virtual keyboard that was synced with a physical keyboard.This keyboard helps the Virtual Reality user to see what keys are typed in the head-mounted display while using the physical keyboard at the same time.Mid-air virtual keyboards or overlaying of real-world video into the Virtual Reality display are the two methods on which other Virtual Reality typing systems depend on.

However, both require additional equipments such as tracking cameras, which are prone to errors and are invasive. The quality of texting also declines with the availability of only virtual keyboards. Walker says that his solution is significant as it allows people to continue using the physical aspects to interact which makes way for better performance. Also, it doesn’t need additional hardware or an arrangement where a video feed is superimposed into the virtual environment.

Autocorrect Algorithm called VelociTap

Walker conducted an experiment in order to assess the efficiency of a physical keyboard where participants had to type on a keyboard they couldn’t see. In the first part, participants were given a head-mounted display to use which in this case was an Oculus Rift.

In the second part, participants were made to use a desktop monitor along with a keyboard that was out of their view but could be used to type. Both were tested with and without Walker’s virtual keyboard. Most of the participants reported back with at least proficient typing skills.

However, those without the virtual keyboard lighting up keys made a lot of mistakes. This experiment help set the basis for not just Virtual Reality testing but also to observe how far does autocorrect help in this scenario.Through this study, their team developed a language model to automatically correct the typing called VelociTap, a touch recognition screen program that has been trained on billions of words making it very accurate. The aim is now to implement texting, for both work and play, into Virtual Realityby using physical keyboards.

Whether you are running a global business with targeted audience all over the world or if your business targets a small area where you live, it is absolutely essential to make use of the various social media that exist in the Internet. In this article, I address the local businesses.

You must be aware of what the statistics say:” ….for every third search made in search engines, one is targeted locally”.

Statistics don’t lie but of course will vary for sure every second. In order to capture the local market to the fullest extent possible, your business needs to ride on the social media wave; else, as per the popular cliché, you are ‘leaving the money on the table’.

The invention of social media is bringing the world as close as possible. For businessmen, it is one of the most powerful online tools in terms increasing sales with a meager investment.

Have you ever realized that there has never been a better way to reach thousands of targeted customers and expose your products or services to them, who, thus far, had never even heard of you?

Nevertheless, before you embark on this journey, it’s important to understand what to expect from social media and how to ensure that you’re generating the lion’s share from it.

Infinite patience produces instant results.

The most important aspect of making an impact in social media marketing is to first create an unshakable in trust you. Your social media content should be able to do that. It won’t be achieved in a few months but at least a year will have to pass before your prospective customers begin to notice you and slowly are drawn towards you.

With dedication, you need to consistently update, interact, and research the latest business trends in your industry.

Consider the following:

Gaining trust: Just like you develop a friendship with your neighbor and it becomes strong over a period, gaining trust in the social media world should be treated the same. It takes time and effort to prove yourself, but once you do, the rewards for your efforts are worth it.

Planning takes time: You’ll need to develop an effective plan and stick to it, in order to get the most from social media. This surely requires a long-term commitment on your part.

Tracking Progress: You must invest time and money to track your progress, once you have set the wheels in motion. This way you’ll be able to determine what’s working for you and what needs to be changed.

Interaction with Customer:  Customer interaction needs to be a permanent activity. Everything you’ve built up can be easily lost if you forgo customer interaction and engagement.

Don’t Give Up.

It is very likely to happen that none of your efforts are producing results; it would seem so but not really. You must give time for the seeds you have sown to germinate.

When you find yourself in such a depressing situation, consider tackling social media marketing with new videos, photos, or anything that will excite you, and in turn give people something to talk about.

Social media marketing takes time, effort, and dedication.

6 Leading Social media.

The top 6 social media sites that are swarmed by billions of people as well businesses are:

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Linkedin
4. Youtube
5. Google plus
6. Pinterest

Take social media marketing seriously. There are ample free guides in the web to educate you.

If you’re considering getting started flying drones for recreation, you have your task cut out for you — you have an endless array of choices with wonderful, high-tech models everywhere you look. You have a learning curve ahead of you finding out what kind of choice to make.

Right here, you can start with these quick descriptions of the four major designs in use today.

Multi-rotor drones

The most common drone type seen in many applications, multi-rotor drones have three or more rotors. Designs start from cheap toy models that cost as little as $20 to ones that are powerful enough to carry several pounds of payload and cost as much as $5,000.

Multi-rotor drones have a lot going for them, including low cost, ease of control, an ability to hover like a helicopter, and safety. The spinning rotors on these vehicles are tiny and not very powerful. If you accidentally hit someone, the injuries aren’t likely to be serious.

While multi-rotor models are the cheapest drone variety, they do come with downsides. With their many rotors to spin, their batteries don’t usually last very long. A good, mass-market model is likely to fly no longer than 20 minutes, less if there is a heavy camera to carry.

Fixed-wing drones

Fixed-wing drones tend to look like one of those cool Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bombers. Unlike multi-rotor drones, these needs to glide to stay aloft — they don’t hover. Extended flight time is the greatest advantage that comes with choosing this design. Since these craft are able to glide on their wings, their propellers don’t need work as hard. A battery-powered fixed-wing drone can stay up two hours, and one powered by a gas engine can fly as long as 16 hours.

On the downside, fixed wing drones are like airplanes — they need space to take off and land, and the take skill to fly. You need to pay attention to technical nuances like angle of attack, pitch and yaw. If you bank wrong or angle too hard into the wind, you’ll face a stall situation. If you’re happy to really invest in learning the skill and don’t need to hover, fixed-wing drones are for you.

Single-rotor drones

Single-rotor drones come in a very familiar form — they look and function exactly like helicopters. While there are models that run on battery power, the most popular ones run on gas engines. Single-rotor drones tend to be large at 6 feet from tip to tail, and are powerful enough to carry movie cameras. With only one rotor to fly on, they do offer a lot more flying time than multi-rotor models that tend to waste a lot of energy. These vehicles can be very expensive, however, and take a great deal of skill to fly.

It’s also important to keep in mind that with their large helicopter-like blades, their weight, speed and size, these are not toys. If they are handled incorrectly, terrible accidents are bound to happen.

Hybrid VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing)

These are large, helicopter-like craft as well, but with a huge difference — they have wings as well as rotors. These are used by companies like Amazon to deliver some of their merchandise. At this point, these are expensive, and you would need special connections to find one. They aren’t in production yet. But when they come on the market, they could be a lot of fun, because they provide both hover and gliding flight, and come with various autopilot features.

According to Drone Enthusiasts (Dronethusiasts Rankings – Top Camera Drones), the kind of model you choose depends on the purpose that you have in mind, the amount of investment that you’re willing to bring to the activity and the amount of skill you’re willing to learn.

If you’re only starting out, multi-rotor craft are likely to work the best.

Scams have become a menace these days, affecting millions of computers worldwide. This has also resulted in unnecessary fear amongst people with panic gripping many of the internet users. Taking advantage of the turmoil, scammers have found a new way to swindle off money by luring people into buying fraudulent anti-virus software.Frequent spam emails, adware pop-ups and high pressure sales tactics is the new modus operandi of fraudsters operating online. Very often, users are tricked into sharing confidential information which is then used to loot money from people’s bank accounts.

Unveiling the latest tricks to Scam People

There’s a new trend in market which is catching people off guard is the use of sudden pop-up advertisements.  These ads pop up whenever someone visits a website or scrolling through a webpage, showing a fake warning that the user’s computer has been affected by malware and needs immediate repair. The fraudsters design the whole procedure in such a manner that one cannot hardly differentiate them from the legitimate ones.

These advertisements prompt the user to call some servicemen to deal with the virus issue. Most of the time, novice users fall prey to such social engineering tactics and gets convinced by scamsters that their computer is infected by malicious software. Once the user grants access of their computer to these conmen, they install certain spyware and adware instead of legitimate anti-virus software and gains access to all of user’s personal information and financial transaction.  Aged people and inexperienced users are usually the soft targets of these scam.

FTC in action

The US government have started their operation against such scams/fraudsters after noticing large increase in internet fraud. The Federal Trade Commission which the chief regulatory body in this regard, is doing all in its capability to book the culprits behind the scam. Pam Bondi, the attorney general of Florida who is known to be operating closely with the Federal Trade Commission has told users to remain alert and report such crimes whenever they occur.

About 16 new enforcement actions by the FTC are said to be in the process of implementation to nab the conmen. Till now, the commission has received more than 96,000 complaints in this regard with people getting conned for a total amount of $24.6 million.

The FTC is working closely with internet giants like Apple and Microsoft to device ways to protect people from such internet scams and frame charges against the scamsters.  Whenever users call numbers given in the pop-up advertisements, they are usually greeted by telemarketers who tries to convince that they are certified servicemen from legitimate companies like Apple and Microsoft. In this way, it’s easy for them to gain trust of the internet users.  FTC warns people not fall for such social engineering tricks and instead call up service centers of Microsoft and Apple directly. It has also warned against replying to spam emails pretending to be from authentic sources.

Last Friday a major ransomware based cyberattack was launched on global scale which left hundreds of computers infected with the WannaCry. Security experts had advised the users to update their Windows in order to minimize the threat of the ransomware. However the major question which is being tackled by the infected users is ‘whether to pay up the ransom or not’?

Most of the security experts had put forward the advice that one shouldn’t pay the ransom in any given scenario. For a number of users paying a sum of $300 isn’t too much to get back their encrypted data stored back to its original state. But paying ransom will only made the attackers resolve stronger and they will be compelled to bring much higher level of threats which can lead massive financial and other losses.

Paying isn’t the right course of action

The people behind the WannaCry ransomware has set up a number of digital wallets to track the Bitcoin payments made for the ransom and it shows quite a number of people are willing to part with their money in order to get their data back. A number of security experts have stated that these people are dealing with the criminals and they shouldn’t expect the honest transaction. The reason behind such statement is that on analyzing the WannaCry it was found that its design doesn’t offer any promises of regaining the access to the files in any way even after paying the ransom.

A UK security firm called Hacker House experts has stated that a usual ransomware works by encrypting all the data present on the computer then asks for a ransom. When the ransom is paid then hackers tend to provide the key which helps in decrypting the data but in case of the WannaCry it requires a manual human operator to activate the decryption process.

In simple words paying the ransom will not result in getting back the encrypted data to its original form in any manner in WannaCry hacking. Security researchers had tried to get in touch with the people behind the WannaCry ransomware but they had remained silent. Therefore when the victims try to contact the WannaCry hackers in order to get the key for unlocking the files then it’s doubtful that someone will heed to them.

What you should be doing instead?

WannaCry has mainly targeted the business networks on the global scale by exploiting the vulnerability present in the Windows operating system. All those users who had been affected by this WannaCry ransomware should note that they are not likely to get their data back unless they had backed their data on a spate device earlier.

Therefore people should make a habit of backing up their files on a spate device or a different machine on a regular basis. It is also possible to get rid of this WannaCry ransomware from the device or system but the process is certainly isn’t a straightforward one. A technical support website called Bleeping Computer has set down a guideline for removing the ransomware but it involves downloading of some specific programs.