Last month, dental technology startup ONVI introduced a toothbrush with a camera built in, so users could get a close up look at their teeth as they slowly rot away in their heads. This, thankfully, is not that.
In a lot of ways, Philips’ new smart toothbrush is similar Oral-B’s offering. The verbosely named Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected is a Bluetooth-enabled electric toothbrush designed to track and help improve people’s brushing habits.
When I sat down with the company ahead of launch, a spokesperson stressed the need for “truly meaningful innovations,” since, “anybody can create a connected toothbrush,” adding that, at the end of the day, most people who go the lengths of buying a fancy $200 electric toothbrush probably don’t need, say, a twice daily reminder to brush their teeth.
So if you’re going to make a smart toothbrush, you should make it, you know, smartly. In other words, don’t just add connectivity to your toothbrush for the sake of adding connectivity to your toothbrush.
Philips’ big push here its 3D Mouth Map, designed for dentists to designate trouble areas due to over- or under-brushing for specific users. The app utilizes that information to determine where users should be spending their time while brushing. There’s also a touchup feature that tacks on extra time after the requisite two minute to address spots that were missed.
Activity is tracked courtesy of on-board sensors, which display brushing in real-time. That information is recorded and aggregated over time, so dentists can determine the areas that need work before the next checkup. It’s kind of like brushing homework.
The brush itself features three intensity settings, pressure sensors (with a built-in haptic buzz when you press too hard) and a timer. The brush head is rubberized and designed to conform to the teeth and gums. And according to the company, the battery should last upwards of two weeks, making the brush a good potential travel companion.
The Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected will run $200 when it starts shipping in July. The company will also be offering the toothbrush bundled with a UV sanitizer to zap bacteria on the brushead.
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics, via Nieman Lab: as of March 2016, there were 197,800 Americans working in Internet publishing and broadcasting, and only 183,200 working for newspapers.
If you don’t want to use DEET to keep the mosquitoes away, lemon eucalyptus-based repellents actually do a pretty bang-up job. Here’s a way to make your own spray at home and keep those bloodsuckers away.
This video from the HouseholdHacker YouTube channel explains how to whip up your own homemade mosquito defense. All you need is lemon eucalyptus oil, vanilla extract, and some witch hazel. The menthoglycol in the lemon eucalyptus oil has been shown to be almost as effective as DEET at repelling mosquitoes, the witch hazel acts as an emulsifier, and the vanilla extract makes the spray smell nice. Add around 30 drops of lemon eucalyptus oil to your mixing container, followed by one teaspoon of vanilla extract, and 4 ounces of witch hazel (you can also use rubbing alcohol, vodka, or cooking oil). Mix it all up and pour it into a spray bottle, and your homemade mosquito spray is ready. The repellent should work for about four hours before you need to re-apply.
Fun with computer algorithms: Mathematicians say Super Mario Brothers is NP-hard. (Image: Christine Daniloff/MIT)
If you’ve ever been frustrated at your inability to complete a level of Super Mario Brothers, here’s a little something to cheer you up. Computer scientists have demonstrated that solving a level in the popular video game is tantamount to solving some of the hardest problems in computational science.
They’re known as “NP hard” problems, as opposed to the class known as “P” problems, which are relatively easy to solve. A classic example of an NP hard problem is the Traveling Salesman problem: the salesman must find the shortest route to visit 100 cities.
It turns out that navigating the levels of Super Mario Brothers can be equivalent to solving these very difficult mathematical equations, according to MIT computer scientist and engineer Erik Demaine. One caveat: Demaine and his colleagues haven’t shown that the actual levels in commercial versions of Super Mario Brothers meet this standard—only that it is possible to construct levels that are NP hard using the raw materials of the game world, a task that’s actually possible with Super Mario Maker. More on this in a second.
Computer scientists are particularly interested in NP problems, because they’re the cornerstone of cryptography. As MIT’s Larry Hardesty explained in 2009:
Computer science is largely concerned with a single question: How long does it take to execute a given algorithm? But computer scientists don’t give the answer in minutes or milliseconds; they give it relative to the number of elements the algorithm has to manipulate.
Imagine, for instance, that you have an unsorted list of numbers, and you want to write an algorithm to find the largest one. The algorithm has to look at all the numbers in the list: there’s no way around that. But if it simply keeps a record of the largest number it’s seen so far, it has to look at each entry only once. The algorithm’s execution time is thus directly proportional to the number of elements it’s handling — which computer scientists designate N.
So if you’ve got an algorithm to find the largest number in a list of 100 numbers (N=100), the time it takes to complete the task is proportional to N—let’s say one second per operation. Things get more complicated if your algorithm is tasked with, say, figuring out the distances between a given number of airports on a map (where N is the number of airports). It takes longer—three hours rather than one second—because for every airport on the map, the algorithm must calculate the distance to all the others. The real trouble comes with exponential algorithms—say, to factor a 1000-digit number. Then it would take a whopping 300 quintillion years to complete the task.
That’s how long it takes to solve such a problem on its own, but if a computer is given the answer, it can quickly verify that the answer is correct. Think of it as being like a riddle: it’s hard to guess the answer, but once we’re told, the answer seems obvious.
So what does all of this possibly have to do with Super Mario Brothers? A couple of years ago, Demaine and his colleagues examined a generic version of a video game structure they dubbed a “locked door.” This version had two possible states for a path through the game: it’s either safe to use that path, or it is not. Those two states, open or closed, can correspond to the 0s and 1s of computer memory bits.
Demaine et al. demonstrated that any computational problem could be represented by locked doors organized in just the right configuration. If a given problem is exponentially hard, so, too, will be figuring out how to complete that game level. In other words, that problem is NP hard.
Using the raw materials of the game world, they figured out how to construct these kinds of locked doors in Donkey Kong Country. They failed to do the same for Super Mario Brothers. They thought building a locked door in Super Mario was impossible and concluded that the game was at least as hard as the most difficult NP problems. But they couldn’t definitively prove that it was harder. For mathematicians, that’s a key distinction.
At the International Conference on Fun with Algorithms taking place this week in La Maddalena, Italy, Demaine will describe how the key to building a locked door in Super Mario Brothers is to exploit a monster called a “spiny.” A spiny can move between two barriers in the game but can’t leap over them—not without Mario’s help, anyway. If Mario bumps the floor just as the spiny approaches the barrier, it pops right over. The locked door Demaine et al. eventually constructed is based on which side of a barrier the spiny is on. If it’s on one side, the path is open; if it’s on the other side, the path is closed. And there are separate paths that allow Mario to bump the spiny from one side to the other.
And here’s why it’s not just about video games. Mathematicians and computer scientists often talk about proving the general statement that P does not equal NP. If P does not equal NP, then there is no fast, general way to solve NP hard problems. Conversely, if P does equal NP, that would mean that even seemingly difficult problems could have fast, easy solutions. We just haven’t found them yet. And that has enormous implications for cryptography. All our protected data would become vulnerable. (For what it’s worth, most mathematicians believe it’s far more likely that P does not equal NP.)
Confused? Here’s Simon Singh, author of The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets, giving his own take on P vs NP, illustrated with short clips from The Simpsons and Futurama:
For such an arcane mathematical concept, P vs NP gets cited a lot in popular culture. It’s served as a plot point in Elementary. And Charlie Epps, the brilliant mathematician played by David Krumholtz in Numb3rs, used the game Minesweeper to explain the concept to a group of FBI agents in an early episode.
Demaine has taught a class on such hardness proofs using video games, and thinks this can be an effective educational approach. “My hope is through this class and these kinds of papers to encourage more people to do this, because it really does build up a lot of expertise that makes it easier to conquer problems,” he said in a statement. “The more practice we get as a collective, the better we are at solving these types of problems. And it’s important to know the limits of algorithms.”
Klaus Teuber is a name that’s probably not immediately recognizable to you but might ring a bell in the back of your mind because as the inventor of Settlers of Catan, his name graces every box. Surprisingly, board game design was originally Klaus’ hobby, but after selling 25 mil copies of Catan, he no longer has to work in a dental laboratory—or really ever again.
Great Big Story recently traveled to Germany to meet Klaus, and his family, and picked his brain for some gameplay strategies. His advice? Don’t waste your time chasing the longest road early in the game. You might think it’s your secret weapon, but it will end up hindering the growth of your settlements.
The entire video is a charming look at the mind of a legend, so dig in.
TCAPS – that’s Tactical Communication and Protective System – are a sort of combo connected earplug/hearing aid currently being deployed by the US Army to both reduce hearing loss from explosive sounds and enhance perception of quiet tones.
The system, currently priced at a (perhaps unsurprisingly) lofty $2,000, is designed to address the problem of hearing loss in the military, one of the most widely reported disabilities among veterans. The issue has been attributed, in part, to soldiers’ unwillingness to wear traditional foam earplugs for fear of missing commands and enemy sounds.
The smartphone-connected TCAPS both block out loud sounds like explosions and gunfire, and are capable of enhancing whispers. The systems come in a variety of sizes and shapes for different ear canals and can by charged via solar, standard outlets and even vehicle batteries.
At present, the Army has issued 20,000 of the devices.
Gather the kids and blow their minds with this sneak peek at some of the dramatic and action-packed sequences in the upcoming Netflix-exclusive Voltron reboot. You should also check out the team’s transformation sequence here.
Workbenches can make your life a lot easier if you work out of your garage. There are tons of variationsfor building your own, but over on Instructables, gearboxdesigns shows off a simple bench that’s pretty easy to make and comes in at around $65.
There are cheaper designs out there, but gearbox’s is built for stability. Which is to say, this sucker’s going to weigh a ton when it’s done. Still, it uses pine, which will wear down a little quicker, but it also keeps the cost down significantly. Of course, you’ll need a little bit of woodworking skill to make this for yourself, but all told, it’s not a terribly complex project. Head over to Instructables for the full guide.
The popular expression used for taking a break and enjoying the world around you is “stop and smell the roses.” I think a more interesting way to take some time is stopping to take a look up at the sky. There’s a lot going on up there. Constellations, the moon, and other planets in our solar system can be seen with the naked eye, so you don’t even need to an expensive telescope to take in the awesomeness of the universe. Of course, there are some times when looking at the sky is better than others. That’s why this awesome…
After hitting snooze a few times, I started my morning by checking my Twitter feed. I saw #wearorange was trending and orange selfies were popping up all over (no, they weren’t of Donald Trump). I read through the tweets of out of touch celebrities and socialist-leaning politicians whom were promoting the “movement to end gun violence” and literally had to facepalm. I chose a navy dress to throw on for work today because (and call me crazy) I wouldn’t care to point out the fact that I am opposed to guns and therefore likely NOT carrying concealed.
But hey, I could have a whistle or maybe a call box within 100 yards. Beware, criminals.
When I think of the color orange, all that fills my mind are mental images I catalogued first hand ten years ago. I still remember the melodic “clink” of handcuffs as they locked around my rapist’s wrists. It sounded almost as redemptive as hearing “we find the defendant guilty” spoken by the jury foreperson moments beforehand. The prison jumpsuit he had worn since June 3rd of 2006 will forever embody that blazing color to me.
As I walked out my front door into the world that is predictable only in a way that consistently proves evil can lurk around any corner, I reflected on the tangible things I’ve done to help end violence.
I reported my rape.
I testified in court.
I put a rapist in prison.
I suffered through traumatic side effects no person should ever experience.
I released my name.
I spoke out for victims.
I testified in front of legislators.
I confronted the president on gun control measures that chip away at our constitutional rights.
And I had the resolve to know I’d continue to do so.
So no, I didn’t wear orange to magically end gun violence today. I exercised my constitutional right as an American by wearing my Smith & Wesson on my hip, and headed out of the house knowing what I was wearing truly could make a difference.