31 October 2013

TECHNOLOGY - Never miss a picture perfect moment again!






Never miss a picture perfect moment again! Wearable camera monitors BRAINWAVES to take photos of what you find interesting


  • - The Neurocam claims to rate a user's level of interest in what they are looking at and
      measures it on a scale of one to 100
  • - It uses an analytics algorithm that looks at what a wearer 'likes', which was developed by
      Professor Mitsukura of Keio University, Japan
  • - The smartphone camera is triggered to automatically record and save five second GIF
      clips of scenes that are shown to be of interest to the wearer


If you have ever missed the perfect moment to take a picture, then Japanese researchers could have the answer - a camera that automatically captures whatever you find interesting.
The prototype headset, called a Neurocam, combines a brainwave scanner with an iPhone dock.

This allows it to see what the wearer sees, while a brainwave quantifying algorithm developed by Keio University, Japan, monitors the user's level of interest through a special headband the phone is attached to.


Scroll down for video


Neurowear device
Neurowear admits the current prototype, which straps an iPhone to a user¿s head, is a little bulky and says it is hopeful it can develop a smaller, more fashionable version. Here, the user seems be be moderately interested in a road, but her interest score is not high enough 
to record a video clip of the location


It can constantly judge whether they are interested in what they are looking at on a scale of one to 100.

    If the individual scores over 60, the device records a five-second film on their iPhone in a special ‘liveblogging’ app, which can then be used to remember what they have seen and liked during the day. 



    The prototype headset, called a Neurocam, combines a brainwave scanner with an iPhone dock
    The prototype headset, called a Neurocam, combines a brainwave scanner with an iPhone dock


    HOW THE NEUROCAM WORKS

    The Neurocam wearable camera system claims to detect a wearer's emotions.
    It automatically records moments of interest based on an analysis of the user's brainwaves.
    The system uses an analytics algorithm based on the sensitivity values of 'interest' and 'like'.
    A user's interests are quantified on a range of 0 to 100.
    The smartphone camera is triggered to automatically record and save 5 second GIF clips of scenes when the interest value exceeds 60.
    The scene is saved together with time stamp and location so it can be replayed.
    'This is an extraordinary experiment that challenges the way future cameras can evolve and how humans may interact with such devices,' the firm behind the camera claims.
    'The Neurocam allows humans emotions to become integrated with devices, and we see this as a totally new experience.

    'We believe that in the future, home electronics, facilities, services will seamlessly merge "thought" and "emotions" with the human body as an emotional interface, such as what the Neurocam sets out to achieve.'

    The firm, Neurowear, admits the current prototype, which straps an iPhone to a user’s head, is a little bulky and says it is hopeful it can develop a smaller, more fashionable version.

    It is also considering the addition of a manual mode to enable emotion tagging to scenes, just like GPS information or time stamps that are tagged to photos. 

    An extra 'effect function' would also automatically overlay filters and visual effects on clips based on emotions, if the prototype is developed.

    'We also see potential usage cases for city planning, store development and are exploring other possibilities,' the company said.


    The device uses a brainwave quantifying algorithm
    The device uses a brainwave quantifying algorithm to monitor the wearer's level of interest through a special headband the phone is attached to. It judges what the person if interested in on a scale of 1-100 and records a 5-second video clip if the user scores over 60 (pictured)


    Neurowear headset
    Neurowear is thinking of adding an extra 'effect function' to its device (pictured), which would automatically overlay filters and visual 
    effects on video clips based on emotions

    TECHNOLOGY - China is spying on you through your KETTLE







    China is spying on you through your KETTLE: Bugs that scan wi-fi devices found in imported kitchen gadgets


    • - 20 to 30 appliances 'had hidden chips that send out malware to networks'
    • - Comes as EU probes claims Russia tried to steal data from G20 leaders



    Russian investigators claim to have found household appliances imported from China which contain hidden microchips that pump spam data and malware into wi-fi networks, it has been reported.

    Authorities in St Petersburg allegedly discovered 20 to 30 kettles and irons with 'spy microchips that send some data to the foreign server'.

    The revelation comes just as the EU launches an investigation into claims that Russia itself bugged gifts to delegates at last month's G20 summit in an attempt to retrieve data from computers and telephones.


    Kitchen espionage: Kettles imported to Russia from China with hidden microchips which can send spam data and possibly steal information have allegedly been found by authorities in St Petersburg
    Kitchen espionage: Kettles imported to Russia from China with hidden microchips which can send spam data and possibly steal 
    information have allegedly been found by authorities in St Petersburg


    This has led to speculation that the chips allegedly found in the home appliances may also have the ability to steal data and send it back to Chinese servers.

    The allegations against the Chinese were made in St Petersburg news outlet Rosbalt, which quotes a source from customs broker Panimport, but does not detail what data was being sent or to where.

    According to The Register, which translated the article, it would be possible to build a malicious microchip - sometimes referred to as a spambot or spybot - small enough to hide in a kettle.

      It also believes there are many readily available transformers which could be used to convert Russia's 220V electricty supply to power the chips without destroying them.

      But it casts doubt on the report's claims that the devices were discovered because they were overweight as it is unlikely that the difference of a few grams would have been enough to raise suspicion.

      This might only have happened if the appliances were air-freighted, it said, which was probably not the case because they were cheap items.


      Cyber wars: The revelation comes as the EU launches a probe into claims that Russia bugged gifts to delegates such as British Prime Minster David Cameorn (centre) at last month's G20 summit in a bid to steal data
      Cyber wars: The revelation comes as the EU launches a probe into claims that Russia bugged gifts to delegates such as British Prime Minster David Cameorn (centre) at last month's G20 summit in a bid to steal data


      It emerged yesterday that the European Union is investigating gifts that visiting delegations received at last month's summit in St Petersburg of leaders from the world's 20 top economies after newspaper reports alleged Russia was trying to install spyware on computers to snoop on participants.

      European Commission spokesman Frederic Vincent said that experts were looking into the handouts, which included USB sticks and were given out at the Group of 20 summit, but said 'analysis of hardware and software have not amounted to any serious security concerns.' 
      He added the investigation had not yet been fully completed.

      Italian newspapers reported early this week allegations that Russia tried to spy on participants of the G-20 summit by giving officials free equipment like USB sticks or mobile phone chargers which, once plugged in, would infect computers with spying software.

      At the G-20 summit on September 5-6, world leaders from countries including the U.S., China, Germany and Brazil gathered for two days of talks. 

      Vincent also said the EU delegation would have been well prepared for such attempts, if true. He said it was a routine rule for EU diplomats and leaders to stay away from using handouts or any external equipment during foreign travel.

      VIDEO - Melayu Champa - Part 1, 2 & 3















      Jika anda ingin membuat lawatan ke Cambodia, sila hubungi :

      MOHD RAFIQ : 013-7236904

      Kuala Lumpur


      MALAY WORLD - Cham People






      Cham people


      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


      The Cham people (Cham: Urang CampaVietnamesengười Chăm or người ChàmKhmerជនជាតិចាម) are an ethnic group in Southeast Asia. They are concentrated between the Kampong Cham Province in Cambodia and central Vietnam's Phan Rang-Thap ChamPhan ThiếtHo Chi Minh City and An Giang areas.

      Approximately 4,000 Chams also live in Thailand; many of whom have moved south to the PattaniNarathiwatYala, and Songkhla Provinces for work. Cham form the core of the Muslim communities in both Cambodia and Vietnam.

      Cham are remnants of the Kingdom of Champa (7th to 18th centuries). They are closely related to other Austronesian peoples and speak Cham, a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family (Aceh–Chamic subgroup). This is in contrast to most of the neighboring peoples who speak Austroasiatic languages.

      Cham
      Urang Campa
      Danses Cham.jpg
      Cham dance performance at one of their temples in Nha Trang, Vietnam
      Total population
      400,000
      Regions with significant populations
       Cambodia217,000[1]
       Vietnam162,000 [2]
       Malaysia10,000
       China5,000
       Thailand4,000
       United States3,000
       France1,000
       Laos800[3]
      Languages
      ChamMalayKhmerMandarin ChineseTsat,Vietnamese, French
      Religion
      Predominately Sunni Muslim (Cambodia),Hinduism (Vietnam), Buddhism (Thailand) andShi'a Muslim (China)[4]
      Related ethnic groups
      JaraiAcehnese peopleMalay and otherAustronesian peoples of Southeast Asia.

      History

      Historical extent of the Kingdom of Champa (in green) around 1100 CE
      Depiction of fighting Cham naval soldier against the Khmer, stone relief at the Bayon
      The ancestors of the Cham probably migrated from the island of Borneo. Records of the Champa kingdom go as far back as 2nd century AD. 

      At its height in the 9th century, the kingdom controlled the lands between what is now modern Huế, to the northern reaches of the Mekong Delta in Southern Vietnam.

      Cham tradition claims that the founder of the Cham state was Lady Po Nagar. She originated from a peasant family in the mountains of Dai An, Khanh Hoa province. Spirits assisted her when she sailed on a drift piece of sandalwood to China, where she married an heir to the royal family with whom she had two children, and then became Queen of Champa.

      Al-Dimashqi (1325) states that "the country of Champa... is inhabited by Muslims and idolaters. The Muslim religion came there during the time of Caliph Uthman... and Ali, many Muslims who were expelled by the Umayyads and by Hajjaj, fled there."

      The Daoyi Zhilue documents Chinese merchants who went to Cham ports in Champa and married Cham women, to whom they regularly returned after trading voyages. A Chinese merchant from Quanzhou, Wang Yuanmao, traded extensively with Champa and married a Cham princess.

      In the 12th century AD, the Cham fought a series of wars with the Angkorian Khmer to the west. In 1177, the Cham and their allies launched an attack from the lake Tonlé Sap and managed to sack the Khmer capital. In 1181, however, they were defeated by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII.

      Between the rise of the Khmer Empire around 800 and Vietnam's territorial push to the south, the Champa kingdom began to shrink. In the 1471 Vietnamese invasion of Champa it suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the Vietnamese, in which 120,000 people were either captured or killed, and the kingdom was reduced to a small enclave near Nha Trang. Between 1607 and 1676 one of the Champa kings converted to Islam, and during this period Islam became a dominant feature of Cham society.

      The Cham were matrilineal and inheritance passed through the mother. Due to this, the Vietnamese in 1499 enacted a law banning marriage between Cham women and all Vietnamese males, regardless of class. The Vietnamese also issued instructions in the capital to kill all Chams within the vicinity.

      When the Ming dynasty in China fell, several thousand Chinese refugees fled south and extensively settled on Cham lands and in Cambodia. Most of these Chinese were young males, and they took Cham women as wives. Their children identified more with Chinese culture. This migration occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries.

      Further expansion by the Vietnamese in 1720 resulted in the total annexation of the Champa kingdom and dissolution by the 19th century Vietnamese king, Minh Mạng. In response, the last Champa Muslim king, Pô Chien, gathered his people in the hinterland and fled south to Cambodia, while those along the coast migrated to Trengganu (Malaysia). A small group fled northward to the Chinese island of Hainan where they are known today as the Utsuls. Their refuge in Cambodia where the king and his people settled still bear the name of Kompong Cham (literally Cham landing); others scattered in communities across the Mekong Basin. Those who remained the Nha Trang, Phan Rang, Phan Rí, and Phan Thiết provinces of central Vietnam were absorbed into the Vietnamese polity.
      Flag of the FLC – Front de Libération du Champa, which was active during the Vietnam War
      In the 1960s various movements emerged calling for the creation of a separate Cham state in Vietnam. The Liberation Front of Champa (FLC – Le Front pour la Libération de Cham) and the Front de Libération des Hauts plateaux dominated. The latter group sought greater alliance with other hilltribe minorities.

      Initially known as "Front des Petits Peuples" from 1946 to 1960, the group later took the designation "Front de Libération des Hauts plateaux" and joined, with the FLC, the "Front unifié pour la Libération des Races opprimées" (FULRO) at some point in the 1960s. Since the late 1970s, there is no serious Cham secessionist movement or political activity in Vietnam or Cambodia.

      Genocide
      The Cham community suffered a major blow during the Khmer Rouge rule. During the mass killings by the government, a disproportionate number of Chams were killed compared with ethnic Khmers. Ysa Osman, a researcher at the Documentation Center of Cambodia concludes, "Perhaps as many as 500,000 died. They were considered the Khmer Rouge's No. 1 enemy. The plan was to exterminate them all" because "they stood out. They worshipped their own God. Their diet was different. Their names and language were different. They lived by different rules. The Khmer Rouge wanted everyone to be equal, and when the Chams practiced Islam they did not appear to be equal. So they were punished."
      Culture
      The Cham shielded and always observed their girls attentively, placing great importance on their virginity. A Cham saying said "As well leave a man alone with a girl, as an elephant in a field of sugarcane."

      The Cham Muslims viewed the karoeh ceremony for girls as very significant. It takes place when the girl is aged fifteen, if it has not taken place, the girl cannot marry since she is "tabung", after the ceremony is done the girl can marry. Circumcision to the Cham was less significant than karoeh.

      21st century

      Young E De people, members of the mountain Chamic
      Map of the distribution of the Cham in southeast Asia today
      The majority of Cham in Vietnam (also known as the Eastern Cham) are Hindu, while their Cambodian counterparts are largely Muslim. A small number of the Eastern Cham also follow Islam and to a lesser degree Mahayana Buddhism. A number emigrated to France in the late 1960s during the Vietnamese civil war.
      The majority (88%) of Chams who reside in Cambodia are Muslim, as are the Utsuls of Hainan. The isolation of Cham Muslims in central Vietnam resulted in an increased syncretism with Buddhism until recent restoration of contacts with other global Muslim communities in Vietnamese cities, but Islam is now seeing a renaissance, with new mosques being built. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Chams of that country suffered serious purges with as much as half of their population exterminated. They suffered a higher rate of loss than any other ethnic group; with most of their leaders executed, only 21 out of 113 (19%) Imams surviving and perhaps only 15% of Cambodia’s mosques surviving.

      Malaysia has some Cham immigrants and the link between the Chams and the Malaysian state of Kelantan is an old one. The Malaysian constitution recognizes the Cham rights to Malaysian citizenship and their Bumiputra status, and the Cham communities in Malaysia and along the Mekong River in Vietnam continue to have strong interactions.

      Around 98,971 Cham are estimated to live in Vietnam.
      The Acehnese people of Aceh province in SumatraIndonesia are the descendants of Cham refugees who fled after defeat against the Vietnamese in 15th century.

      Religion

      The temples at Mỹ Sơn are one of the holiest of Cham sites
      The Cham decorated their temples with stone reliefs depicting their gods, such asGaruda fighting the Nāga (12th-13th century CE)
      The first recorded religion of the Champa was a form of Shaivite Hinduism, brought by sea from India. As Arab merchants stopped along the Vietnam coast en route to China, Islam began to influence the civilization.

      The exact date that Islam came to Champa is unknown, but grave markers dating to the 11th century have been found. It is generally assumed that Islam came to Indochina much after its arrival in China during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), and that Arab traders in the region came into direct contact only with the Chams, and not others. This might explain why only the Chams have been traditionally identified with Islam in Indochina.

      Most Chams, especially in Cambodia, follow Islam and uphold its pillars including praying five times a day, fasting in Ramadan and performing hajj to Mecca. For many years, representatives from Cambodia have taken part in the annual International Quran Reciters Competition in Kuala Lumpur. The Cham Muslim community in Cambodia runs religious schools and is headed by a Mufti.

      A syncretic form of Islam that blends indigenous practices of matriarchy, ancestor veneration and Brahmanism is practiced by the Cham Bani, who predominantly live in Vietnam's Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuận Provinces. The Cham Bani worship in thang magik, the main communal setting for rituals. They also celebrate the month of Ramuwan (Ramadan), during which ancestors are called to return home for veneration, and the acar (priests) stay at the thang magik for one month and adhere to a vegetarian diet.

      However, a small band of Chams, who called themselves Kaum Jumaat, follow a localised adaptation of Islamic theology, according to which they pray only on Fridays and celebrate Ramadan for only three days. However, some members of this group have joined the larger Muslim Cham community in their practices of Islam in recent years. One of the factors for this change is the influence by members of their family who have gone abroad to study Islam.

      The approximately 60,000 Cham Hindus presently do not have a strict caste system, although previously they may have been divided into Nagavamshi Kshatriya caste, with a considerable minority being Brahmins. Hindu temples are known as Bimong in Cham language, but are commonly referred to as "Tháp" (Temple tower in Vietnamese) by the Cham. The priests are divided into three levels, where the highest rank are known as Po Adhia or Po Sá, followed by Po Tapáh and the junior priests Po Paséh. In Ninh Thuan Province, where many of the Cham in Vietnam reside, Cham Balamon (Hindu Cham) number 44,000 while Cham Bani (Muslim Cham) number close to 31,000. Out of the 34 Cham villages in Ninh Thuan, 23 are Balamon Hindu, while 11 are Bani or Muslim. In Binh Thuan province, Balamon number close to 25,000 and Bani Cham around 10,000. There are 4 pure Cham villages and 9 mixed villages in Binh Thuan Province.

      Chams

      ·         Chế Bồng Nga, the last strong king of Champa
      ·         Che Linh, singer
      ·         Amu Nhan expert on Cham music
      ·         Inrasara (Mr Phu Tram), poet & author
      ·         Dang Nang Tho, sculptor and director of Cham Cultural Center, Phan Rang, Ninh Thuan Province
      ·         Ahmad Tony, Extreme Scooter Rider