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Wav2vec-U: Facebook’s New AI Speech Recognition System That Doesn’t Require Human Participation

Facebook Wav2vec-U

Speech recognition is an important factor in the development of AI of Big Tech companies. Technology is powering digital assistants on phones, cars, and smart speakers in our homes. But despite their ubiquity, speech recognition is still in development. 

Now Facebook announced a major breakthrough in the speech recognition sector. The company is developing an AI speech recognition system that learns without any human input.

Modern speech recognition systems are trained on audio recordings of conversations and their text transcripts. These transcripts are handwritten by humans. This is a long and boring work since training artificial intelligence requires a huge amount of educational material. 

Facebook AI speech recognition system called Wav2vec-U (Wav2vec Unsupervised) only needs to “feed” speech samples in the desired language and fragments of random text in it, after which it will start learning on its own until it “understands” individual words and phrases.

The Facebook model is essentially based on a feedback loop between a contradictory generative network (GAN) composed of a “generator” and a “discriminator.” The first takes out representations of the speech patterns uploaded to the corresponding network, which acts as a kind of translator.

At the same time, Facebook introduces additional text written by people to help the generator understand the difference between computerized and real-world results. This process is repeated until the generator solution matches the actual text.

Facebook engineers have successfully taught Wav2vec-U to recognize speech in Swahili, Kyrgyz, and Crimean Tatar languages. The system generates 63% fewer errors than the previous system of the same type, and it only took 9.6 hours of speech and 3000 written phrases for training. To speed up the development of Wav2vec-U, the company has released the system code on Github.

Companies Amazon, Otter.ai, Google, Deepgram, Microsoft, Verbit, offer their own speech recognition systems, but they all require human participation for training, unlike the new Facebook system.

Importance Of Gadgets Help In Learning

Importance Gadgets Help In Learning

The use of technological gadgets is on the rise, and these items are being used by students and professionals worldwide. With the latest technology tools, both teachers and students will have an enhanced experience. Studying becomes easier, and teaching can take on a new form that will maintain the attention of each student.

With the newest technology being used by students, it is possible to get law essay help online, connect with tutors from home. Use gadgets to help complete tasks help with law essays in the university can be received via wi-fi connections, providing students with the assistance and resources needed. Here, we take a look at how gadgets play an important role in our daily lives. While they are beneficial in educational settings, you will also find tech items being used in various professional fields. With many useful electronic gadgets available, there is something for everyone. Each day, millions of people benefit from the advantages of using technology.

Use of Gadgets in Various Fields

One field where tech gadgets get constant use is in education. You will find that most teachers today are making use of the latest technology to help deliver the best education to students. Laptops are often found being used in a classroom, and many teachers prefer the function of an iPad. This small and portable device is a perfect way to organize class lessons, manage grades, create assignments, and more.

Smartpens have also become a popular gadget in many fields. It is useful for teachers but can benefit students, managers, lawyers, and any other professional. With this unique device, your handwriting on any surface will be digitized. It can then be saved and shared in a variety of formats! This gadget makes note-taking a simple task and can also help field professionals complete forms on the go.

With technology playing a role in every career, various gadgets can make tasks simpler and quicker. Most people who work in an indoor setting will have access to wi-fi connections. The top universities in the world all offer internet access, allowing gadgets for students to be easily used to enhance the learning experience. Available wi-fi connection will allow for the use of many gadgets, including laptops, wireless printers, wireless projectors, and more. 

How They Help Students

While technology can help in any career, it is especially beneficial for students. Whether enrolled in high school or a top-rated university, you will find the need for technology to complete assignments and be successful in your studies. 

Kindles have become a great thing for students. While most people use this gadget for casual reading, it can be used in a classroom setting and in universities. Kindles allow students to go digital and avoid having to lug books into classrooms. Many texts and assigned reading lists will be available on a Kindle. You can even highlight text and add your own notes.

Digital notebooks are becoming popular gadgets in education. These take the place of the standard paper notebooks and allow all written material to be digitalized. Notes can be saved to a cloud service like Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud. You will also be able to perform quick searches for specific words. Reusable notebooks are a must for any college student, and they can be used over and over, eliminating the need for multiple notebooks.

One final gadget that every student should have is a portable charger. This not only applies to students but to teachers and any other professional that uses wireless devices. With a portable charger, you can make sure that all of your devices are usable throughout the day. There is not always the option to plug in and charge, so be prepared and have these gadgets on hand to avoid any battery drains throughout the day.

RISC-V: Open-Source Alternative To ARM That Will Revolutionize The Processor Industry

RISC-V Open-Source processor

The concept of free software and related terms as open-source is well known today. From operating systems like Android or Linux to essential tools like VLC Media Player, Mozilla Firefox, LibreOffice, Blender, or GIMP are some of the greatest examples.

The open-source revolution made it possible for developers around the world to work together, creating new applications that are available to everyone. Today, we can find suitable or maybe better alternative open-source applications for every paid software.

So we only heard about the influence of the open-source community in the software sector. For obvious reasons — it is easier to develop software than hardware. However, there are also open-source projects associated with hardware, and one of the most promising is called RISC-V.  

And today, you will get to know what does this has to do with ARM processors or with RISC-V.

RISC-V: Open-source ARM Alternative

RISC-V is a free processor architecture provided under open-source licenses that do not require fees to use. That is, anyone can manufacture a processor with this architecture and adapt it to their needs without having to pay a patent, royalties, or copyright, unlike PowerPC, ARM, or Intel chips.

And the best thing is that behind the project, there are giants like Western Digital, Alibaba, Huawei, and ZTE, along with some well-known others like AMD, Google, IBM, Oracle, and Qualcomm.

What does RISC-V’s entry into the processor industry mean?

Technology is today a fundamental part of any company, government, or society. Although the world is increasingly connected, dynamics focused on geostrategy or the dominance of some countries over others continue to prevail. As an example, supercomputers — the two main opponents are the United States and China.

If we analyze the specifications of their machines, little by little, each country bets on its own technology. China already has its own processor, Sunway, instead of the IBM Power9 of its American rivals. Like open-source software, for example, why depend on American software like Windows if each country can have its own Linux distro.

Hence the importance of the RISC-V project, some processors based on the RISC architecture, such as the popular ARM.

RISC-V, the non-profit foundation that manages the project, was created in 2015 with headquarters in Switzerland. Founded with 29 members, today, it has more than 1,000 members from more than 50 countries. And the purpose is ambitious — to create a processor architecture that everyone can benefit from without depending on foreign technologies and without paying for rights or patents.

The RISC architecture on which RISC-V is based was created to outperform processors in the 1980s. At that moment, and within the IBM facilities, there is a schism between two points of view: CISC and RISC.

The first, Complex Instruction Set Computing. The second, quite the opposite, Reduced Instruction Set Computing. Although it served its purpose, RISC did not become as popular as the CISC processors from Motorola, IBM, or Intel. What’s more, the x86 architecture took over the home and professional market. Still, RISC had the support of giants like Sun Microsystems and its SPARC processors. IBM also contributed with its PowerPCs.

But the computer age gave way to small devices like smartphones and tablets, and other gadgets. This has made the RISC philosophy or architecture take off thanks to proposals such as ARM, an architecture whose name is the acronym for Advanced RISC Machine.

RISC-V project, today

RISC-V currently has 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, its design is available to anyone on its official website. What’s more, in this link, you will find boards and chips that already exist on the market to start using this architecture. Obviously, at the moment, it is not designed for the domestic market, although they are already fully functional.

Although the future that RISC-V offers is much more, its present is already beginning to show little by little everything that this platform can offer. Some RISC-V adoptions are: 

  • European Union R&D involves implementing the RISC-V architecture to design a European processor that does not depend on American, Japanese, or Chinese technology.
  • Last year the Red-RISCV was born, a union of Spanish organizations and universities to work and innovate in technology around the RISC-V architecture.

It is very likely that we will hear about RISC-V in the coming years in relation to scientific and technological research. But sooner rather than later, the creators of devices and technologies will end up benefiting from this open-source architecture and launching their own chips based on RISC-V in response to current preferences such as Intel, AMD or ARM.

Ecommerce: The Only Way to help you Run Your Business during COVID Lockdown

eCommerce Website Development

Ecommerce or Electronic commerce is the only thing that businesses have used to survive the lockdown endorsed by governments to stop the deadly CORONA virus.

COVID-19 originated from Wuhan, China, has completely altered businesses’ financial statements, their plans, missions, and strategies. Enterprises that were thinking for expansion, development, and technology enhancement suddenly stopped when the virus started causing millions of deaths globally, and to stop that, the world was forced to lock down.

Do you know all the businesses that went successful during this pandemic have one thing in common? That is, they all used Ecommerce and entirely focused their work on online selling that not only helped them survive the lockdown but made them earn millions of revenue.

What is Ecommerce

Most of you might already know what exactly e-commerce is, or some of you must have listened to this terminology. Well, to recall your concepts, e-commerce is the buying and selling of products and services by using the internet.

With the increased use of technology, most enterprises have shifted to online businesses along with having physical stores even before the pandemic. Some businesses changed their gears during the lockdown and made them available on the internet to billions of users.

However, some businesses still haven’t launched themselves appropriately and are still questioning the authenticity and reliability of e-commerce. Trust me; this business medium is the most successful if you establish yourself accurately on the internet and get yourself ranked on search engines.

How Enterprises can boost their Sales via Ecommerce

If you haven’t launched your business on the internet yet, there are two mediums that you need to follow simultaneously to be accessible to a large number of audiences.

The simplest yet the most challenging tip for a successful online business is one and only; that is, you need to be easily accessible to the customers and have high-quality customer service. Trust me; you will be earning millions or billions of dollars.

There are two channels to start online selling; making a website and making a mobile app. Many businesses only focus on building a high-quality website and do not launch their app, but I have seen that enterprise app development is equally important and fruitful for a company’s revenues.

Let’s explore the two e-commerce channels one by one to have a better insight:

Website

A website is the most frequently used e-commerce medium to sell and purchase products and services. The website ranks on search engines, and those that have better followed the search engine algorithm will have their website ranked on the first page and can get millions of customers.

A company can offer discounts on a website and assure a better customer experience by introducing various features, including virtual assistants who can guide a customer on a specific product, delivery time, and price.

One of the other forms of eCommerce platform is PunchOut website or a punchout catalog like greenwingtechnology.com. It allows an institutional buyer to buy from a supplier directly from the supplier’s website from within the buyer’s own procurement application or hosted eprocurement system.

Since customers can order the product or service while sitting at home and get the parcel without wasting their time on shopping malls, this medium has been the most successful E-commerce platform.  

Mobile App

Mobile App of the business always results in a large number of audience but has still not been adopted by a large number of companies. The reason can be the challenge behind launching a successful mobile app which definitely is a challenging task.

However, contact enterprise mobile app development company who know how to develop the best mobile app that is user friendly, easy for ordering, and that can help customers track the order.

If you want to increase your revenues in a short span, you should definitely launch a mobile app along with your business website that has all the latest features to enhance customers’ experience.

Conclusion

There are thousands of businesses entering into the e-commerce world, and to stand out in the tough competition, a business needs to enter from all possible doors. Website and mobile app are the two ways which customers mainly prefer for online shopping. Therefore, you should launch both simultaneously and enjoy the fruit of your investment, even if it’s a lockdown.

Much Desired Software that Organizations Prefer: Open or Closed Source?

Open or Closed Source

The developmental end of software has the potency to modify Ordinary organizational processes to Exceptional — Let’s get to know which software source code provides better possibilities in doing so.

Today’s revolution is not confined to particular limitations. It’s digital evolution which has diversified directions and ultimate solutions for a given problem. Following the same development trend, startups, enterprises, and industrial units have direct connectivity with automated software models that can answer their most frequent queries/difficulties more professionally and retain better customer maintenance to build profitability. 

However, as the growth of companies doubles, the requirement to add additional but mandatory features in applications expands at the same pace. Online platforms operating on digital backgrounds all have to upgrade their functionality which is possible by adding one-stop characteristics in software. But should the software being utilized be closed or open source?

The answer to this question is clearly described, which is open source popularity over closed source. About thousands of applications working on the internet, a maximum of them have open-source customizability, which assures that security is an uncompromised issue, and open-source customization of code is what makes security aspects highly encrypted. Including governmental, educational, business, and finance domains, open-source make compatibility funnel. Applications required to expand their existing structure add APIs, and other technologies retain the same open-source characteristic of code modification. 

For instance, financial modeling prep is a stock market API and has open-source documentation, a must component of finance applications providing worldwide stock market data. The applications that work on these modifiable structures have significant reliability to attract investors, who are using them to determine a confident investment decision. 

According to a 2020 survey made on Open Source Software by The New Stack and The Linux Foundation, the usage of open source for noncommercial and internet-related or IT industries is reaching 80% acceptability from developers, while the commercial products operated through online platforms incorporate open source at 61%.

Still, many reasons support open source software over closed one, but the most prominent features are mentioned in this article.  

Open Source Gimmicky Over Closed Source

1. Elude Unwelcome Size of Software

The addition of important features through durational upgradations in applications might develop the size of software. The possibility of size growth is concerned with software built on closed source coding. Once code following closed source is applied, the modifications can’t be made. Hence, adding advanced features that must run with previous ones is restricted to apply and requires additional code to be added. However, this heavy body software is not a problem with open-source software.

2. Versatility and Ultimate Security Maintenance

As open-source proposes less code with advanced and more featured applications ready to configure multiple jobs at one time, it adds versatility in software. This versatility denotes a revolution in the online business community which ultimately needs security incrementation as threats have also gained momentum. Open-source being fast in action makes security validated by adding quick technologies for authorized encryption.  

3. Among Worldwide Developer’s Communities Recognition

A global society of developers promotes open-source software, and what’s different concerning this association is that they’re all upholders for teamwork and inventiveness. Managing as a whole, developers believe they can formulate more magnificent and serviceable services/goods that everyone can profit from. 

Conclusion

Open source combination software not simply produces code more friendly to your business but delivers you a manageable medium for day-to-day tasks accomplishment. By upholding an open union structure, you can cancel the repeated effort required in developing features and provide your company the versatility to practice open integrations on their projects, driving your whole organization ahead without any trouble.

Fix X3DAudio1_7.dll error while playing Skyrim

Skyrim

Skyrim is an evergreen ARPG game for both consoles and PCs by Bethesda. Even though there’s an upcoming title in the line and considering that the available game is years old, it is impressively popular.

Now that Microsoft owns Bethesda, it is suddenly more in the buzz than ever.

For consoles, you should not have any issues with the game — well, mostly because you cannot mod it. But, when it comes to PC gaming with Skyrim, there are tons of mods available.

And, sometimes you encounter an issue just because of a mod, or the cause is something else.

In this article, we shall talk a bit more about the game/their mods and the solutions to fix X3DAudio1_7.dll error when trying to launch Skyrim.

Skyrim & The Mods: What you need to know

At the time of writing this, Skyrim V has potentially thousands of popular mods available that make the game fun and adds more content to it in a way.

If you’re new to this game, it is important to know about it because you may have just applied a mod but did not realize how it works and what issues it could cause.

You may find visual mods, content addition mods, and bug fixing mods to start with. However, to make sure that you don’t get an error message when trying the game, it is always good to know what the mod does. You should definitely avoid visual enhancing mods unless you’re 100% sure that it would run with your configuration.

Of course, you do not need a high-end PC to run Skyrim. But, sometimes a vintage configuration or an overkill configuration is the root cause. So, no matter what you do, you are going to have constant set of issues.

It is very important to download mods from trusted sources and make sure they are compatible with your system. Once everything checks in, you can proceed to apply the mod. It is also common to use a bad mod manager — so you will have to select the best recommended mod manager that is being used by most of the players.

In addition to that, you might want to keep a backup of your original files before you apply a mod to avoid any issues.

Now that you know what to keep in mind, let us proceed in looking at some of the solutions that you can try to fix the X3DAudio1_7.dll error while playing Skyrim and what the error is all about.

X3DAudio1_7.dll error: What is it?

Not just limited to Skyrim but you can get this error on potentially every game that runs on DirectX instead of Vulkan.

Maybe, you just upgraded the drivers or uninstalled something that the game needed. In that case, you may also notice such an error.

It is mostly caused to due to some DirectX runtime files missing. So, if you install it or restore the DLL file using one of our solutions below, you can easily fix it for yourself.

How to fix ‘X3dAudio1_7.dll is missing’ error?

Now that you know what could have potentially caused the error, let us talk about the potential fixes:

1. Download DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer & Run It

As I mentioned, DirectX could have been the root cause in the first place. So, to repair and fix the issues, you can just download the DirectX End-User Runtime package from the official site and run it.

DirectX web installer

It should resolve the issue. In either case, you can also try downloading the 2010 package directly, which some games require but it is an optional update for newer Windows version.

2. Download the DLL File Online and Place it on correct directory

Visit https://dlldownloads.com/x3daudio1_7-dll/ to download the DLL file, and place it inside Windows/System32 folder.

Do note that you should keep a backup of the original DLL file, if it exists in that folder already. Once done, just re-launch the game and it should work.

3. Recover DLL file if it was deleted accidentally

In case you accidentally deleted the DLL file, you can just fire up a recovery software or the Recycle Bin to find the deleted file and simply restore it.

It should work in most of the cases if you accidentally deleted it very recently.

Wrapping Up

So, there you have it — keep the required things in mind while playing Skyrim and try these potential solutions to fix X3DAudio1_7.dll missing error and you should be good to go.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Project Starline: Google Make Video Calls Much More Realistic With Life-Size 3D Holograms

Google Project Starline

At Google I/O 2021 event, Google has presented its new project, called ‘Project Starline.’

Project Starline is a futuristic 3D video calling system with which you can see the other person, who is in a remote location as if they were present in front of you — like life-size 3D holograms.

As Google explains, “Imagine looking through a sort of magic window, and through that window, you see another person, life-size and in three dimensions. You can talk naturally, gesture, and make eye contact.”

As Project Starline’s technology is still under development, it requires specialized components in order to function. This comprises multiple cameras, sensors, and microphones that serve to capture the person from different angles in as much detail as possible.

To make this possible, Google has applied research in computer vision, machine learning, spatial audio, and real-time compression. In addition, they have also developed an innovative light field display system that creates a sense of volume and depth “that can be experienced without the need for additional glasses or headphones.”

In this way, an effect is created that gives the feeling that the other person is sitting “in front of you, as if they were there.”

Google has pointed out that one of the things they are most proud of is that, once the user sits in front of the screen and starts talking, “the technology fades into the background, and you can focus on what’s most important: the person in front of you.”

Project Starline is currently being tested in some Google offices. However, they hope that over time the technology needed to make this video calling system work will become more affordable and accessible.

Although we will not see Project Starline, at least in the near future, in the mass market, Google assures that some of its advances will serve to add innovative features of existing communication products.

How To Get The Most Out Of Your Monitor

Asus 360Hz gaming monitor

Computer users often end up spending hours behind a monitor but few are aware of what needs to be done in order to actually make the most out of the display. Fortunately, there are many different things that you can do in order to improve the experience you get from the computer monitor. Even if you do not have the very best gaming monitor on the market, you can still get much better image quality.

Place Items Behind Monitors

When limited desk space is present or you want your desk to be clutter-free and clean, the monitor can actually be utilized to hide so many different items. Mount things behind the monitor, like an external hard drive, cables and the laptop.

Connect A Tablet To The Monitor

While this is not always about your main monitor, if you have a tablet, it is a really good idea to do all you can to get extra real estate for the screen. This allows you to do many extra things since you can use the touchscreen features of the tablet. Most monitors do not have a touchscreen display. There are apps that will connect mobile devices to monitors. Alternatively, your Kindle or similar gadgets can be utilized as secondary monitor for other purposes.

Create Photo Backgrounds With The Monitor

Do you love taking photographs that look professional? If so, the monitor can be a really good backdrop to utilize. Find a suitable background and then place what you photograph right in front of it. You can also use green backgrounds in order to make it very simple to remove the background from the photograph for some extra editing.

As an extra thing to remember, keep in mind that when you have a nice background on your monitor while you do not use the computer, the entire area might seem more inviting. Consider this.

Improve The Monitor Reading Experience You Have

If you utilize the monitor to read articles or books, you quickly figure out the fact that the display is not a perfect, comfortable and eye-friendly solution. This does not mean you cannot use the monitor. Utilize things like adjustable monitor stands to put displays at a proper viewing angle and use some extensions that will modify screen text.

Control The Monitor With Shortcuts And Apps

Most monitors have various built-in tools that can be used to make specific tweaks. But, when you want extra control, there are apps you can utilize, just like keyboard shortcuts. For instance, apps like F.lux and G.Lux for Chrome can help you quickly adjust screen temperature and brightness. You can also take advantage of multi-monitor tools, with Synergy and Display Fusion being really popular. When your goal is to put the monitor to sleep really fast, you can set up keyboard shortcuts.

Ergonomically Set Up The Monitor

Most desk setups out there are very bad for your body. It is a shame since proper tech positioning is paramount. When discussing just the monitor, you want to be sure that it is one arm length away at the very least. Also, the top of the computer monitor needs to be situated at the level of your eye. If you need extra help, buy some computer glasses to help you prevent the appearance of eyestrain.