Computer learns to mimic artists

22 July 2013 Last updated at 09:41 ET

A computer program that can mimic the abstract portrait drawings of specific artists has been built by experts at Disney Research.

Seven artists were asked to create quick sketches based on portrait photographs, taking various lengths of time to complete their work.

Each artist generated about 8,000 pen strokes for the sketches.

Individual artist preferences, such as how far apart they drew eyes, were also included in the data gathered.

That data was then used to create sketches of photographs as the computer understood each artist would have done them - even beginning with a particular feature if that had been identified as what the artist would have done.

"There's something about an artist's interpretation of a subject that people find compelling," said digital artist Moshe Mahler, from Disney Research, which is based in Pittsburgh.

"We're trying to capture that - to create a computer model of it - in a way that no-one has done before."

However Mr Mahler added that the results were limited to the practical technique rather than the individual flair of the artists used in the pilot project.

"Our approach only understands the trends of how an artist might work," she said.

Is it art?

Dr Nick Lambert, lecturer in digital art at Birkbeck, University of London, and chairman of the Computer Arts Society, told the BBC that Disney's idea built on non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) processes, which have been around since the 1990s.

"We think of computer graphics as trying to look like photographs, but they can equally be something more sketch-like," he said.

"This is basically modelling the effects of the artist's vision - it's an interesting piece of work, but it does build on a number of things that have been done before."

Dr Lambert added that the art world may take some convincing about the program's creative efforts.

"It's a question of whether the machine can learn and evolve from what it sees in the sketches," he said.

"And in this instance that doesn't seem to be the case.

"So the jury is still out on the art front."

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Tech giants demand spying openness

19 July 2013 Last updated at 07:13 ET

Apple, Google and dozens of other technology companies have urged US authorities to let them divulge more details about security requests.

The companies want to be able to report regular statistics about the nature and scope of what data is being asked for.

Whistle-blower Edward Snowden's revelations about US spying capabilities has left the tech firms keen to assert their independence.

Authorities are said to be considering the companies' request.

"We just want to make sure we do it right," said Gen Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency.

"We don't impact anything ongoing with the FBI. I think that's the reasonable approach."

Limited scope

The companies sent a letter outlining their request on Thursday to Gen Alexander, as well as President Obama and Congress.

It was co-signed by some of the most influential companies in the tech world, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Campaign groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Human Rights Watch are also backing the action.

Companies are currently allowed to release limited data regarding security requests and their nature.

But as it stands those disclosures must be limited in scope, and in many cases require that the firms ask the courts for permission to make the information public.

Many users of popular services, particularly social networks, reacted angrily to the news that companies regularly make available information about users when requested to do so.

"They don't have a choice. Court order, they have to do this," Mr Alexander from the NSA said, suggesting that security authorities could be open to the idea.

"What they want is the rest of the world to know that we're not reading all of that email, so they want to give out the numbers.

"I think there's some logic in doing that."

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Music piracy 'rises' after festivals

Festivals cause a rise in online music piracy, research from Spotify suggests.

The findings appear to show that festivals increase demand for artists' music, but that festival-goers mainly sample through unauthorized channels.

"Our analysis uncovered some examples of torrents spiking immediately after festival performances," says a statement from Spotify.

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Our analysis uncovered some examples of torrents spiking immediately after festival performances

Spotify

They suggest artists who delay releasing material are pirated more than those who release music directly.

A study carried out at the Dutch Stoppelhaene festival in 2012 showed that BitTorrent downloads for the artists Racoon and Gers Pardoel "skyrocketed" after the finished their sets.

Legal sales and Spotify's own streaming counts were not affected by the performances.

"Explanations for these spikes merits further study, but one intuitive driver is instant gratification," the report, titled Adventures in The Netherlands, says.

"Academics and policy makers who are researching this topic may want to consider other events such as awards and talent shows to see if similar spikes occur."

Spotify also believes that the need for "instant gratification" means that artists who release material to the streaming markets at the same time as putting it on sale, also reduce the likelihood it will be pirated.

According to one sample, One Direction's Take Me Home was the most popular album on Spotify and also had the best sales to piracy ratio of 3.79 copies sold per BitTorrent download.

Unapologetic, by Rihanna, was released the following week but not available on Spotify and did much worse in comparison, selling only 1.36 copies per BitTorrent download.

Not all artists support the music streaming service and some are critical of how much it pays artists for making their music available.

Earlier this week Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke pulled some albums from the site in protest at how much it pays artists.

The musician tweeted that he was "standing up for fellow musicians".

Subscription services like Spotify are the fastest-growing area in digital music, making up 13% of worldwide sales.

But 57% of global recorded music sales still come from physical products such as CDs, down from 74% in 2008.

As well as Spotify, services like Rdio and Pandora, Xbox Music, Google Play Music All Access and the soon-to-launch iTunes Radio compete for streaming listeners.

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Phone anti-theft put through paces

19 July 2013 Last updated at 09:40 ET

New measures to curb soaring levels of mobile phone theft worldwide are to be tested in New York and San Francisco.

Prosecutors will test measures on Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S4 to measure effectiveness against common tactics used by thieves.

Various cities across the world have called on manufacturers to do more to deter phone theft.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has written to firms saying they must "take this issue seriously".

In a letter to Apple, Samsung, Google and other mobile makers, Mr Johnson wrote: "If we are to deter theft and help prevent crimes that victimise your customers and the residents and visitors to our city, we need meaningful engagement from business and a clear demonstration that your company is serious about your corporate responsibility to help solve this problem."

Kill switch

Prosecutors in the US are following a similar line - last month meeting representatives from the technology firms to discuss the matter.

They are calling for a "kill switch", a method of rendering a handset completely useless if it is stolen, rendering a theft pointless.

Continue reading the main story

We are not going to take them at their word"

End Quote US authorities

Statistics from the US Federal Trade Commission suggest that almost one in three robberies nationwide involves the theft of a mobile phone.

In New York, 40% of robberies are phone thefts - a crime so common it has been dubbed "Apple-picking" by police.

London has seen a "troubling" rise in mobile phone theft, the mayor's office said, with 75% of all "theft from person" offences involving a phone - 10,000 handsets a month.

Close scrutiny

The firms have offered theft solutions to help combat the problem.

Apple's Activation Lock - which will be part of the next major iPhone and iPad software update - is to come under close scrutiny.

Thieves will often deactivate a phone immediately to stop it being tracked after a theft. Activation Lock is designed to make it harder to then reactivate, as it requires the entry of the log-in details used to register the phone originally.

For Samsung and other handsets, prosecutors, aided by security professionals, will be testing theft recovery system Lojack.

"We are not going to take them at their word," the prosecutors in New York and San Francisco said in a joint statement.

"Today we will assess the solutions they are proposing and see if they stand up to the tactics commonly employed by thieves."

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Disney defends cost of new game

19 July 2013 Last updated at 19:09 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

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John Day from Disney tells the BBC's Dave Lee about the entertainment company's major new gaming project.

Disney has defended the cost of its new collectable, interactive video game ahead of its launch next month.

Disney Infinity encourages players to collect additional figures and add-ons inspired by the company's films.

The starter pack, with three figures, will cost around £60, with an optional 17 extra figures costing around £12 each.

Disney told the BBC the game represented good value for parents, and that toys could be easily swapped.

Lead producer John Day said: "I think the value proposition here is really quite good because normally, when Disney releases a new film, there would be another game associated with that that would be upwards of £50.

"But with Infinity we can still deliver that additional content moving forward, and for these playset packs - which are, in their own right, an entire game - the recommended retail price is going to be closer to £30.

"So you can actually get £50 worth of stuff at a substantial discount."

Pester power

The game, which will be released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U and Nintendo DS next month, is designed to be continually upgraded as new characters become available - either from previous films made by Disney, or upcoming titles.

The starter pack contains the game's core accessory, a docking station for figurines and other add-ons which can be swapped while the game is being played, changing characters and environments instantly.

The figures contain RFID chips - tiny, low-cost components that can contain a small amount of data.

Continue reading the main story

To go back to school and find Little Johnny down the road has all the characters will make it hard"

End Quote Siobhan Freegard Netmums

Disney Infinity will launch with 20 different characters available to buy - with more being added at a later date.

As well as the figures, gamers can also buy £4 add-on packs containing discs that can make characters stronger and quicker, or change other areas of the game.

Siobhan Freegard, founder of parenting advice site Netmums, said there would be concerns over the potential for pester power.

"I do worry that at the moment so many parents are strapped for cash," she told the BBC.

"It's not a cheap present - and to go back to school and find Little Johnny down the road has all the characters will make it hard. It is a never-ending thing. Parents need to know what they're signing up to."

On the subject of the add-on packs, she added: "I'm not sure I like that your character can be better because your parents have more money."

'Immediate pull'

The Disney Infinity concept borrows heavily from Skylanders, a massively successful game that has over 100 additional characters that can be added for around a similar price.

However, Ms Freegard said children's immediate familiarity and fondness for the Disney characters might mean there was higher demand.

"The thing about Skylanders is that the children for a long time don't know the characters," she added.

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Disney's John Day explains to the BBC how much the company's new game could cost parents.

"But parents will buy this, and children will already know the names of all the others [Disney characters] - there's an immediate pull."

Beyond the tradeable figures - which are interchangeable with different platforms, meaning a PS3-owning child can swap their characters with a friend who has an Xbox 360 - the game's key selling point is the ability to create worlds in its "toybox" mode.

"I'm very excited about the educational prospects of this," said Disney's Mr Day.

"I have two boys, ages two and four, and I like the idea that they can be learning about how to do logical connections using the toys in the Toybox.

"We can bring in toys like buttons and doorways, and you can connect the button to the doorway and have the button open the door when you step on it.

"It seems very basic, but at the same time we're talking about logical inputs and outputs. It really is a lightweight programming language."

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Freeview failure hits Sony owners

21 July 2013 Last updated at 09:58 ET

Sony says it is experiencing "a major technical issue" after many owners of its DVD recorders lost access to their Freeview TV channels.

Dozens of owners have written to the BBC to complain that a malfunctioning software update on Friday has caused their devices to stop receiving or recording Freeview.

Many complained about a lack of response from Sony customer support.

Sony said it was doing everything possible to solve the problem.

"A major technical issue has been flagged to our dedicated team. We will update you asap," the Japanese firm tweeted back on Saturday in response to dozens of messages about the problem.

The company's own support forums as well as other independent online sites were filled with complaints from irate users over the weekend.

Sony HXD recorders, such as the RDR-HXD870 model, which were updated Friday with the firmware 1.70 fix, seem to be affected by the issue.

"It may already have come to your attention that thousands of owners of Sony DVD units have completely lost all their access to Freeview channels," Geoff Cheers, from Chorley, wrote to the BBC.

Graham Johnson, from Oxford, wrote: "There are thousands of people affected by this, many of whom, like me, have wasted hours today trying to retune and repair their machine. Many folks, it seems, have also been out and bought a new one.

"Sony's Twitter feed and own technical support website are in meltdown with angry customers, and Sony themselves are conspicuous by their absence."

On Sunday, a spokeswoman for Sony UK told the BBC: "We are aware of the issue and our engineers are doing everything to solve it."

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More UK digital firms than thought

22 July 2013 Last updated at 05:05 ET

Britain has many more technology firms than the government estimates, according to a new report.

Under its classification the government recognises 187,600 digital companies.

Research by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) says there are almost 270,000 such companies in the UK, 40% more than the government estimate.

NIESR says the government's classification is "outdated" and misses out many tech firms.

The report used data from Growth Intelligence, a company which tracks the activity of firms on the internet and sells that information to clients.

Tom Gatten, chief executive of Growth Intelligence, said: "This research demonstrates the need for a new way of understanding the economy, both for government and for businesses.

"Rather than relying on outdated codes or static lists, our new technology and internet data reveals new opportunities and insights for growth."

In response, an official at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said: "We are confident ONS statistics reliably measure the size and shape of the economy according to best international practice."

'New measurement'

The report was commissioned by Google and its chief economist, Hal Varian, is one of the people behind Growth Intelligence.

"This is a groundbreaking and important report by NIESR not just because it shows that the spread of the digital economy into other sectors is driving growth and jobs throughout the UK but because - for the first time in 65 years - it presents us with a new way of measuring the economy," he said.

The report says that official statistics use only a basic definition of the digital economy.

The new research goes further by identifying digital companies that are working in traditional sectors including architecture, publishing and engineering, according to the report.

It cites case studies, including Scottish firm Kelton Engineering, which sells hi-tech equipment to the oil industry, but at the moment is classified as "business support".

Another is a publishing company, Stonewash, which provides web design and other internet services, but is classified as "other publishing".

The NIESR report says companies like those are being wrongly classified and could be missing out on investment, because investors use classification to identify potential investment targets.

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Millions of phones 'at risk of hack'

22 July 2013 Last updated at 08:58 ET

A flaw with mobile phones' Sim card technology is putting millions of people at risk of being spied on and robbed, according to a leading security expert.

Karsten Nohl has said he has found a way to discover some Sims' digital keys by sending them a special text message.

He warned criminals could potentially use the technique to listen in on calls or steal cash.

Industry organisation - the GSMA - said it was looking into the findings.

"Karsten's early disclosure to the GSMA has given us an opportunity for preliminary analysis," said a spokeswoman for the association, which represents global network operators,

"We have been able to consider the implications and provide guidance to those network operators and Sim vendors that may be impacted.

"It would appear that a minority of Sims produced against older standards could be vulnerable."

Mr Nohl has posted preliminary details of the vulnerability on the website of his company, Berlin-based Security Research Labs.

Intercepted calls

Sim (subscriber identity module) cards effectively act as a security token, authenticating a user's identity with their network operator.

They also store a limited amount of data such as text messages, contacts' telephone numbers and details used for some applications - including a number of payment and banking services.

Mr Nohl said he had found a way to discover the authentication code by sending a device a text message masquerading as a communication from the user's mobile operator.

The message contained a bogus digital signature for the network.

He said most phones cut contact after recognising the signature as being a fake - but in about a quarter of cases, the handsets sent back an error message including an encrypted version of the Sim's authentication code.

The encryption is supposed to prevent the authentication code being discovered, but Mr Nohl said that in about half of these cases it was based on a 1970s coding system called Digital Encryption Standard (DES), which was once thought secure but could now be cracked "within two minutes on a standard computer".

Once the attacker had this information, Mr Nohl said, they could download malware to the Sim written in the Java programming language.

He said these could be used by the hacker to send texts from the device to premium rate numbers they had set up, to discover and listen in to the target's voicemail messages and to track their location.

In addition, he warned that combined with other techniques, it could act as a surveillance tool.

"Sim cards generate all the keys you use to encrypt your calls, your SMS and your internet traffic," Mr Nohl told the BBC.

"If someone can capture the encrypted data plus have access to your Sim card, they can decrypt it.

"Operators often argue that it's not possible to listen in on 3G or 4G calls - now with access to the Sim card, it very much is."

Mr Nohl said that his research suggested about an eighth of all Sim cards were vulnerable to the hack attack - representing between 500 million to 750 million devices.

Although Mr Nohl would not reveal at this time in which countries DES encryption remained most common, he did say that Africa-based users had particular cause for concern.

"Here in Europe we use a Sim card to make phone calls and texts, but many people in Africa also use them for mobile banking," he said.

"Someone can steal their entire bank account by copying their Sim card.

"That adds a certain urgency because you imagine fraudsters would be most interested in breaking into their Sim cards - especially when it can be done remotely."

Black Hat

Mr Nohl said he expected network operators would not take long to act on his study, and should be able to provide an over-the-air download to protect subscribers against the vulnerability.

The GSMA said that it had not yet seen the full details of his research, but planned to study it to pinpoint any issues that could be fixed.

It added that "there is no evidence to suggest that today's more secure Sims, which are used to support a range of advanced services, will be affected".

The UN's telecoms agency - the International Telecommunications Union - said that it would now contact regulators and other government agencies worldwide to ensure they were aware of the threat.

Mr Nohl said he planned planned to reveal more information about the vulnerability at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas later this month.

However, he said he would not publish a survey showing which phone owners were most at risk until December to give operators an opportunity to address the problem.

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Cameron unveils online porn curbs

22 July 2013 Last updated at 10:16 ET

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David Cameron: "In the balance between freedom and responsibility we have neglected our responsibility to children"

Most households in the UK will have pornography blocked by their internet provider unless they choose to receive it, David Cameron has announced.

In addition, the prime minister said possessing online pornography depicting rape would become illegal in England and Wales - in line with Scotland.

Mr Cameron warned in a speech that access to online pornography was "corroding childhood".

The new measures will apply to both existing and new customers.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Seven years ago David Cameron told a Google conference that politicians should encourage companies to change, not over-regulate them.

Today, he announced he had reached agreement with the four biggest ISPs on pornography filters, after some behind the scenes tussling.

But he hinted that if search engines like Google didn't agree to a blacklist of search terms, he would legislate.

From Downing St, he can supplement the art of persuasion with the smack of firm government.

Back in his opposition days, Cameron made waves presenting himself as a man on the side of parents against firms that sold chocolates at checkouts and children's bikinis.

If he can mould a similar image in Downing St, as a PM doing battle with big business on behalf of fellow parents, he will be more than happy.

Mr Cameron also called for some "horrific" internet search terms to be "blacklisted", meaning they would automatically bring up no results on websites such as Google or Bing.

He told the BBC he expected a "row" with service providers who, he said in his speech, were "not doing enough to take responsibility" despite having a "moral duty" to do so.

He also warned he could have to "force action" by changing the law and that, if there were "technical obstacles", firms should use their "greatest brains" to overcome them.

'Innocence'

In his speech, Mr Cameron said family-friendly filters would be automatically selected for all new customers by the end of the year - although they could choose to switch them off.

And millions of existing computer users would be contacted by their internet providers and told they must decide whether to use or not use "family-friendly filters" to restrict adult material.

The filters would apply to all devices linked to the affected home Wi-Fi network and across the public Wi-Fi network "wherever children are likely to be present".

Customers who do not click on either option - accepting or declining - will have filters activated by default, Tory MP Claire Perry, Mr Cameron's adviser on the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood, told the BBC.

The UK's biggest internet service providers have agreed to the filters scheme meaning it should cover 95% of homes.

Other measures announced by the prime minister included:

• New laws so videos streamed online in the UK will be subject to the same restrictions as those sold in shops
• Search engines having until October to introduce further measures to block illegal content
• Experts from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre being given more powers to examine secretive file-sharing networks
• A secure database of banned child pornography images gathered by police across the country will be used to trace illegal content and the paedophiles viewing it

Mr Cameron also called for warning pages to pop up with helpline numbers when people try to search for illegal content.

He said: "I want to talk about the internet, the impact it is having on the innocence of our children, how online pornography is corroding childhood.

"And how, in the darkest corners of the internet, there are things going on that are a direct danger to our children, and that must be stamped out.

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Claire Perry MP: "We have asked companies to help families install family friendly filters"

"I'm not making this speech because I want to moralise or scaremonger, but because I feel profoundly as a politician, and as a father, that the time for action has come. This is, quite simply, about how we protect our children and their innocence."

But former Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre boss Jim Gamble told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was important to "get to the root cause" of illegal pornography, by catching those responsible for creating it.

He added: "You need a real deterrent, not a pop-up that paedophiles will laugh at."

But Ms Perry argued filters would make a difference, saying that the killers of schoolgirls April Jones and Tia Sharp had accessed legal pornography before moving on to images of child abuse.

She added: "It's impossible to buy this material in a sex shop... but it's possible to have it served up on a computer every day."

In his speech, Mr Cameron said possession of online pornography depicting rape would be made illegal.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

The coalition government has pledged to prevent abuse of women and girls, so tackling a culture that glorifies abuse is critical for achieving this"

End Quote Holly Dustin Director, End Violence Against Women Coalition

Existing legislation only covers publication of pornographic portrayals of rape, as opposed to possession.

"Possession of such material is already an offence in Scotland but because of a loophole in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, it is not an offence south of the border," Mr Cameron said.

"Well I can tell you today we are changing that. We are closing the loophole - making it a criminal offence to possess internet pornography that depicts rape."

The move has been welcomed by women's groups and academics who had campaigned to have "rape porn" banned.

Holly Dustin, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said the group was "delighted".

"The coalition government has pledged to prevent abuse of women and girls, so tackling a culture that glorifies abuse is critical for achieving this," she said.

"The next step is working with experts to ensure careful drafting of the law and proper resourcing to ensure the law is enforced fully."

'No safe place'

Mr Cameron, who has faced criticism from Labour over cuts to Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre's funding, insisted the centre's experts and police would be given the powers needed to keep pace with technological changes on the internet.

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Claire Lilley, NSPCC: "In every single child abuse image there is a victim, a child who has been abused"

"Let me be clear to any offender who might think otherwise: there is no such thing as a safe place on the internet to access child abuse material," he said.

A spokesman for Google said: "We have a zero tolerance attitude to child sexual abuse imagery. Whenever we discover it, we respond quickly to remove and report it.

"We recently donated $5m (£3.3m) to help combat this problem and are committed to continuing the dialogue with the government on these issues."

According to some experts, "default on" can create a dangerous sense of complacency, says BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones.

He says internet service providers would dispute Mr Cameron's interpretation of the new measures, insisting they did not want to be seen as censors.

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UK ISPs to block two pirate sites

22 July 2013 Last updated at 11:22 ET

British ISPs have been told to block access to two websites accused of aiding piracy on a "mass scale".

The court order to block EZTV and YIFY Torrents was made last week and should take effect soon.

The two are the latest in a growing list of websites to which UK ISPs have been asked to block access.

Action against the sites was started by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) in conjunction with the Motion Picture Association (MPA).

File-sharing news site TorrentFreak said it the High Court decision followed efforts by Fact and the MPA to contact the owners of both sites. The MPA is the international arm of the Motion Picture Association of America.

A spokesman for Fact said it and the MPA had given both sites a chance to avoid legal action by responding to cease and desist orders, by both industry groups, to remove pirated content issued.

Fact said it had resorted to legal action when no action to remove infringing content was forthcoming.

The process to get the UK courts to issue blocking orders was now well established, he said, and the UK's biggest ISPs typically took a fortnight to impose blocks.

The action against the two sites was just one aspect of a broader policy targeting pirate sites, said the Fact spokesman.

Efforts were also being made to cut off funds to infringing websites by targeting ad networks that some sites relied on to generate cash.

In addition, he said, payment providers were looking at ways to stop donations and other payments getting through to pirate sites.

A growing number of sites accused of aiding piracy are now blocked to UK web users.

The list includes the Pirate Bay, Kickass Torrents, H33T, Fenopy, Movie2K and Download4All. In addition, the Premier League has won a block on football streaming site FirstRow1.eu.

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