Category: Technology

In the American action movie “Pacific Rim,” giant robots called “Jaegers” fight against unknown monsters to save mankind. These robots are equipped with artificial muscles that mimic real living bodies and defeat monsters with power and speed. Research is being conducted on equipping real robots with artificial muscles like the ones shown in the movie. However, the powerful strength and high speed in artificial muscles cannot be updated, since the mechanical strength (force) and conductivity (speed) of polymer electrolyte—the key materials driving the actuator—have conflicting characteristics.

A POSTECH research team led by Professor Moon Jeong Park, Professor Chang Yun Son, and Research Professor Rui-Yang Wang from the Department of Chemistry has developed a new concept of polymer electrolyte with different functional groups located at a distance of 2Å. This polymer electrolyte is capable of both ionic and hydrogen bonding interactions, thereby opening the possibility of resolving these contradictions. The findings from this study have been recently published in Advanced Materials.

Artificial muscles are used to make robots move their limbs naturally as humans can. To drive these artificial muscles, an actuator that exhibits mechanical transformation under low voltage conditions is required. However, due to the nature of the polymer electrolyte used in the actuator, strength and speed could not be achieved simultaneously because increasing muscle strength slows down the switching speed and increasing speed reduces the strength.

To overcome the limitations presented so far, the research introduced the innovative concept of bifunctional polymer. By forming a one-dimensional ion channel several nanometers wide inside the polymer matrix, which is hard as glass, a superionic polymer electrolyte with both high ionic conductivity and mechanical strength was achieved.

The findings from this study have the potential to create innovations in soft robotics and wearable technology as they can be applied to development of an unprecedented artificial muscle that connects a portable battery (1.5 V), produces fast switching of several milliseconds (thousandths of a second ), and great strength. Furthermore, these results are expected to be applied in next-generation all-solid-state electrochemical devices and highly stable lithium metal batteries.

Provided by Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)

Unity has just signed a new deal with the tech firm CACI. This multi-billion dollar company works with the US government to provide homeland security and national defense tools, and with this three-year multi-million-dollar contract, Unity will become the preferred real-time 3D platform for the US government.

First reported by GameDeveloper, Unity went on to state,

“This win is the single largest Digital Twin Solutions deal for Unity to date and is a strategic deal that helps to solidify Unity as the preferred real-time 3D platform for future systems design and simulation programs across the US Government”

While this of course sounds like good news, this announcement comes less than a year after employees at Unity voiced their concerns about the company’s ethics in regard to working on military projects. It has been said that the employees have been working on technology over the last few years, that could be used as a vital asset within the US government, without even realizing they had been doing so. This is when the workers decided to ask the engine maker to be more transparent about each of their development processes.

It has also been claimed that Unity had been a part of an initiative called GovTech, where they were pursuing government and military contracts that would help the government learn more about AI developments and technologies. In Unity’s final statements, they stated that this is a very exciting project for them and that this will be the most substantial Digital Twins Solutions deal thus far.

It has also been noted that this deal was announced just mere days after AppLovin attempted to sign a merger with Unity, offering the company a valuation of $20 billion. This new deal could mean that Unity will no longer be pursuing that merger, which in turn means that the IronSource merge will also be put on the back burner. The news that Unity would be merging with the app monetization platform left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths, even triggering some of the company’s users, such as game developers, to resign from using the engine’s services.

But why exactly were the users of Unity so angry with the IronSource merger deal? Well, this addition to the company shows that Unity is focusing more and more on its ad business. To be exact, Unity stated that they will have a perfect 50/50 balance between the Creation side of things and the ad growth. The community believed that the ads business should never have been made the main focus of the company. Some people also believe that they changed their strategies due to possibly losing the battle between themselves and Epic Games in the gaming engine department. It is also worth mentioning that IronSource is known for being Malware, which seems like a step in the wrong direction for Unity.

Another thing that may strike the engine users as odd is the fact that this multi-million dollar contract with CACI comes only a few months after Unity decided to lay off over 200 employees to “realign their resources.” After the job cuts were announced, a spokesman for Unity went on to state,

“As part of a continued planning process where we regularly assess our resourcing levels against our company priorities, we decided to realign some of our resources to better drive focus and support our long-term growth. This resulted in some hard decisions that impacted approximately 4 % of all Unity workforce. We are grateful for the contributions of those leaving Unity and we are supporting them through this difficult transition.”

The worst thing about these layoffs was the fact that just two weeks prior to the severeing of employees, CEO John Riccitello was allegedly telling his employees that the company was not in any form of financial trouble, and in turn, would not be letting anyone go . This meant that those who believed their jobs were secure may have been blindsided by the abrupt turn of events.

Dark Crystals are the “Primogems” of Tower of Fantasy and can be used to purchase a small assortment of items but are primarily used for pulling Special Orders. More specifically, Wanderers will need Dark Crystals to buy Red and Gold Nuclei, which are equivalent to Intertwined Fates or Acquaint Fates in Genshin Impact. Players will naturally find and receive these two Nuclei as they complete quests and explore the world. Still, the majority of their gacha pulls will eventually be funded by Dark Crystal currency. Therefore, it is essential for Wanderers to know how to farm Dark Crystals in Tower of Fantasy.

Farming Dark Crystals In Tower Of Fantasy

The first and most straightforward way of getting Dark Crystals in Tower of Fantasy is through the cash shop, where the resource is converted from Tanium, a Genesis Crystal-like currency only acquired through real-world money. There are several limited packs and bundles that offer Dark Crystals for real money as well.

Related:

Tower of Fantasy: How to get Firecore

However, most Wanderers will be interested in how they can earn Dark Crystals for free through in-game activities. Naturally, players will receive Dark Crystals as they progress through the story, complete quests, explore locations, and discover secrets. Yet, most of these sources are a one-time deal, meaning that they do not replenish once a Wanderer has received the reward for the first item. Conversely, there are plenty of renewable ways to earn Dark Crystals through gameplay. Thank you YouTuber Gateoo, Tower of Fantasy fans can learn how to farm Dark Crystals on a regular basis. Remember that most of these sources must be manually claimed in-game. In other words, they will not be added automatically to the player’s account.

Tower of Fantasy is available on PC, Android, and iOS.

Source: gateoo

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has revealed the company has no plans to increase the price of the Nintendo Switch, despite rising manufacturing costs.

Earlier this month, it was revealed sales of the Switch had dropped by 23 per cent in recent months due to a shortage of semiconductor components, while profits for the 2022 to 2023 financial year are currently forecast to be down 29 per cent.

speaking to Nikkei though, Furukawa said Nintendo wants to “avoid pricing people out.”

Talking about increasing production after a shortage of manufacturing supplies, Furukawa said “we’re on track for improvement from the latter half of this summer.” He went on to say things are also on track for Nintendo to sell 21million Switch units this financial year but “beyond that, things are uncertain.”

“[The Switch] is in its sixth year since its launch. All I can say is that we’ll try to keep up sales at the same pace. Having hit software also gives a boost to hardware,” he continued. ”We have a lineup of new games that will allow us to take a crack at meeting our sales forecast, including Splatoon 3 coming out in September and Pokémon Scarlet And Violet in November.”

He added: “For the time being, our OLED model will continue to be less profitable than our other models. Costs have undoubtedly increased for shipping not only by air, but also by sea. We’re thinking about what we can do.”

He went on to say Nintendo are not considering price increases “at this point. In order to offer unique entertainment to a wide range of customers, we want to avoid pricing people out. Our competition is the variety of entertainment in the world, and we always think about pricing in terms of the value of the fun we offer.”

This comes as Meta (formerly Facebook) recently announced that it would be increasing the price of its Meta Quest 2 VR headsets by £100 while last month, Riot confirmed it would be increasing the cost of League of Legends‘ in-game currency in “most” regions due to “worldwide inflation.”

In other news, Guillermo del Toro has shared his frustration at the cancellation of silent hillsas fellow director Hideo Kojima commemorates the eight-year anniversary of its playable teaser.

THQ Nordic held a digital showcase yesterday offering previews of its upcoming video game slate. The biggest reveal was that the company will be publishing a new “South Park” video game, but no further details were shared.

Ubisoft published the last two South Park games back in 2014 and 2017, both well-received RPGs focused on turn-based and tactical approaches. No indication if this will be like that or something more linear and/or platform driven.

Also revealed was “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake,” a new game coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC that feels very much in the veins of their acclaimed remaster “SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated” .

In the game, a fortune teller grants SpongeBob and Patrick’s wishes and they open up portals to ‘strange wish worlds’. It will also feature the original actors from the show, meaning Tom Kenny and Bill Fagerbakke will play SpongeBob and Patrick, respectively.

Also coming is Pieces Interactive’s reboot of the original “Alone in the Dark” franchise with acclaimed “SOMA” and “Amnesia: The Dark Descent” writer Mikael Hedberg penning the game.

The remake will boast a new story and have characters, places, and themes from the original 1990s survival horror trilogy. It will be a PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC release.

More trailers are also out for the remake of “Gothic,” the open-world arcade racing game “Wreckreation” which reportedly boasts 280,000 miles of track to race, the space simulation game “Space for Sale,” the hunting sim game “Way of the Hunter,” and the soon to release “Destroy All Human 2 – Reprobed”.

Last August, Google rolled out a handful of Material You flourishes to Gboard for Android, and a few more are now coming to the keyboard, including the shortcuts bar.

About APKInsight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

At the moment, tapping the chevron icon in the top-left corner slides out various tools, layout, and shortcuts. The list includes today: Settings, Theme, Text Editing, Clipboard, GIF, Floating, One-handed, Translate, Share, and Sticker. There’s also the split keyboard on foldables (but not tablets).

Gboard 12.1 is rolling out to the beta channel today and reveals work on a Material You redesign of that bar that a friend of the site RKBDI has successfully enabled. The corner button is still a circle but now uses a 3×3 grid icon.

Meanwhile, the shortcuts (or “access point” items as they’re referred to) are now housed in rounded rectangles that are very reminiscent of Material You (MD3) chips. It’s not too different from the Assistant voice typing UI on Pixel phones (as seen in the cover image above). The background of each item is lighter than the keyboard, which is more pronounced on colorful themes.

You can now have one more shortcut for a total of five in the bar, though Gboard is working on the ability to let users customize how many appear if they really only need one or two. However, the new maximum is due to Gboard removing the three-dot/overflow at the right and using the existing corner button for entry.

Google has redesigned this view with a more compact grid that’s no longer centered. It allows more functions to be easily added in the future, while the Text Editing layout is getting a Material You modernization of its own with rounded corners for each button.

Another Material You update is to settings. The main list is getting larger, while MD3 toggles are now used throughout.

It’s not clear when Gboard will widely roll out the Material You bar and other design changes.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:

The latest Apex Legends season, entitled Hunted, launches today. In addition to the new Legend Vantage, a King’s Canyon health-focused revamp, and a major level-cap increase, the season will, as always, offer up a new battle pass. The Hunted Battle Pass will offer a variety of hunting-themed skins and cosmetics for Wraith, Caustic, Bangalore, Horizon, and Vantage. These include new reactive weapon skins and some flashy skydiving emotes. You can check out what Respawn/Respawn Vancouver have cooked up for the new battle pass, below.

As usual, the Hunted Battle Pass comes in two variants, including a free one, that will net you a variety of older skins, Apex Packs and more. If you want the new Hunted goodies, you’ll need to spend 950 Apex Coins for the Premium Pass. You can also spend 2800 Apex Coins to get the Premium Battle Pass Bundle, which allows you to skip ahead 25 levels.

Haven’t been keeping up with Apex Legends’ Hunted season? Here’s the rundown on the new Legend…

“Vantage has learned everything the hard way. Born to a wrongfully-convicted criminal who gave birth to her alone on the barren ice planet Págos, Vantage can weather any storm. Accompanied only by her small winged companion Echo and forced to live off a hostile land, she became the ultimate survivalist and an expert sharp shooter. Meet the youngest person to join the Apex Games, Vantage.”

• Passive: Spotter’s Lens — read tactical information on enemy squads at a distance, Vantage always has the upper hand with critical intel like Legend name, Shield rarity, team size and range.
• Tactical: Echo Relocation — Echo is at the ready to help her reposition herself in a fight. Using her modified jetpack and targeting system, Vantage can launch herself towards Echo’s position and take the high ground.
• Ultimate: Sniper’s Mark – There’s nowhere to hide from Vantage’s custom sniper rifle, which reveals enemies with its scope and with its ammunition: a successful hit highlights opposing squads for 10 seconds accompanied by a diamond marker, and damage scales up with each hit.

Apex Legends can be played on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and Switch. The Hunted season kicks off today.

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is finally out on the PC platform. After the original release, PC users can enjoy the definitive version of Insomniac’s critically acclaimed Spider-Man game.

In general, the game runs well. The remastered version comes with all the upgrades offered by the PlayStation 5 release, and the lack of console hardware limitations allows the game to reach its full potential.

However, Spider-Man Remastered has proven to be unexpectedly taxing on many modern gaming PCs. Testing from various reviewers and outlets has shown that game is shaping to be among the most CPU-intensive titles in recent memory.

Even the 5800X3D draws 100W with Spider-Man Remastered CPU load from hell. 🔥🎇🎆

Btw, Alder Lake shows even higher power consumption but is also significantly faster when RT is enabled.

Reposted this because initial tweet was accidentally locked. pic.twitter.com/ISR907uALU

— CapFrameX (@CapFrameX) August 13, 2022

Spider-Man Remastered can prove to be a challenge for any modern CPU. While the game is not too demanding on the GPU side, CPU usage can go extremely high. When ray-tracing is enabled, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D can shoot up to 100 watts of power usage. This indicates that Ray-tracing might be to blame for the extreme CPU usage.

Another Redditor has reported similar results with a Ryzen 9 5900X.

The Redditor’s comment indicates that the game is CPU extensive. Though, the comment did not specify much in terms of settings and resolutions, apart from DLSS. However, these reports are not far and few in between. Several other users and media outlets have reported the game’s odd behavior.

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered. 5x(!) higher PCIe throughput when RT is enabled. This indicates that the CPU is massively involved in BVH management. #SpiderManRemastered pic.twitter.com/GUQb9GJWWi

— CapFrameX (@CapFrameX) August 13, 2022

This tweet seems to confirm the suspicion that ray-tracing is to blame for the high CPU load. With the RTX setting disabled, CapFrameX has observed a 20% reduction in the Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s power draw. However, the game is still not easy going on the CPU without ray tracing. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is being pushed quite a bit, even when ray-tracing is not utilized.

While fans might find this concerning, they can rest assured that Nixxes Software is looking to improve the game. Reviewers have reported that the game has received a massive patch before release, addressing many of the game’s technical issues. More patches are likely to be worked on, and this issue could be resolved shortly.

Developer Nixxes Software has done an excellent job with the Spider-Man Remastered PC port. The game has issues that need to be ironed out, but this release is far from terrible. The game has also run remarkably well on weaker hardware like the Steam Deck. However, a few more patches would go a long way to polish an already great release.

Check Out More News: Iron Man VR Dev Aims To Go All In On VR