Google Counts Calories In Food Porn

Google Counts Calories In Food Porn, Free Amazon Shipping On Small Items 

Written by Dave Parrack3 June 2015

Google counts calories, Amazon ships potatoes, Steam offers refunds, Caitlyn Jenner tweets, Bethesda teases Fallout 4, and Bing launches its own self-driving car.

Google Wants to Ruin Your Food Porn

Google is developing technology that can count the number of calories in a plate of food from nothing but a photograph. The artificial intelligence project known as Im2Calories will be able to guesstimate the calories present in a photo of any foodstuff. 

Im2Calories does this by analyzing the pixels in an image, identifying the foodstuff, figuring out its size and weight, and using “sophisticated deep-learning algorithms” to determine the number of calories present.

Google researcher Kevin P Murphy announced the project at the Rework Deep Learning Summit. He later told Popular Science, “To me it’s obvious that people really want this and this is really useful. OK fine, maybe we get the calories off by 20%. It doesn’t matter. We’re going to average over a week or a month or a year.”

This would actually give people a legitimate excuse for posting endless photographs of their food on social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook. Which is the last thing we need. However, if seeing the numbers means people start making healthier choices when it comes to eating, Im2Calories could literally save lives.

Amazon Ships Small & Light Items for Free

Online retail giant Amazon will now ship small and light items for free within the United States. “Fulfillment by Amazon Small and Light,” as the new service is called, means U.S. residents can get free shipping without the need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber or place a minimum order amount.

According to Bloomberg, “Fulfillment by Amazon Small and Light” is available on items weighing no more than 8 ounces (230 grams), most of which come from third-party retailers. Items will be shipped from Kentucky, and take between four and eight business days to arrive.

This might not seem a big deal, especially as it only counts for items around the size and weight of a potato. However, the price of these small items can double when shipping is added, so this could save some people a lot of money over the course of a year. It also paves the way for Amazon Prime Air, which promises deliveries of smaller items by flying drones.

Steam Offers Refunds for Any Reason

Steam, the digital distribution platform from Valve, is now offering refunds on games. As long as a game has been bought within the last 14 days and has been played for less than two hours, the purchaser can get a no-questions-asked refund for any reason. This is, on the face of it, a very good thing, and something that Steam users have been requesting for a long time. 

However, Steam Refunds means DRM-free titles could be copied and then refunded, short indie titles could be played in full and then refunded, and people could buy a game just to give it a bad review before seeking a refund. In other words, this is all far from perfect.

Caitlyn Jenner Breaks Twitter Record

Caitlyn Jenner has broken the record for gaining 1 million followers in the fastest time. Caitlyn, formerly known as Bruce before her transformation into a woman, managed the feat in 4 hours and 3 minutes, one hour faster than U.S. President Barack Obama.

This was managed by a well-organized PR campaign which saw the Twitter account opened at the same time as Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover was released. This confirmed the rumors that Bruce Jenner was a transgender woman, and revealed her new identity as Caitlyn Jenner.

Bethesda Teases Fallout 4 for E3

Bethesda is currently teasing a new Fallout game widely expected to be Fallout 4. At the time of writing, a timer is counting down to zero, which means by the time you’re reading this the game may have been revealed in full. Or at least by way of a teaser trailer.

We’ll have more details in tomorrow’s edition of Tech News Digest, but it looks as though the company is primarily targeting E3 2015 (June 16-18). It looks likely that Fallout 4 will be a cross-gen title appearing on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and possibly even PS3 and Xbox 360.

Introducing the Bing Self-Driving Car

And finally, Microsoft has revealed the Bing self-driving car, a rival to Google’s self-driving car. Who wouldn’t want an automobile powered by Microsoft’s search engine? After all, Bing is more capable than Google in some areas.

OK, so as you may have already guessed this isn’t real, and Microsoft isn’t working on a self-driving car of its own. At least as far as we know. Instead, this is a just a parody video from the funsters at Rooster Teeth. Still, it could happen one day. Maybe.

Your Views on Today’s Tech News

Do you want Google counting your calories? Will you be using Amazon’s free shipping on small items? Have you ever wanted a Steam refund? Are you following Caitlyn Jenner on Twitter? Are you looking forward to Fallout 4? Would you ever step into a real self-driving car powered by Bing?                            Source: www.makeuseof.com