Project Helix Might Support the Full History of Xbox Games - DTNS 5324

[music] This is the daily tech news for Tuesday, August 4th, 2026. We tell you what you need to know, give you the important context in all of it, and help each other understand. >> Oh my gosh. August. Uh, today, Dr. Nikki tells us about 3D printing earbones. Want to 3D print some earbones? Dr. Nikki is going to tell you how to do it. And Microsoft's Project Helix console could run the entire back catalog of Xbox console games, including 360. Whoa, that's crazy. I'm Jason Howell. >> I'm Tom Merritt. >> Let's start with what you need to know with the big story. Really big story. If you're, you know, interested in game preservation, which I definitely am, a leaked memo address to publishers obtained by The Ver's Tom Warren, uh, reveals or shows that Microsoft is pitching Project Helix, which is the next Xbox console, as a hybrid Xbox and PC console capable of running games designed, yes, for the new hardware, but also running games from four Xbox generations, plus PC games on top of that, of Um, Microsoft's disctodigital system would turn Xbox One and Xbox Series X and S discs into digital licenses. Uh, those licenses could transfer across supported Xbox devices including Helix, including PCs and Xbox handhelds. Um, wherever a game is enabled as Xbox play anywhere. Now on the publisher side, the publishers can opt uh into eligible or or their their titles, their Xbox titles that are actually eligible for this into the new backwards compatibility on PC and Helix program. That would give them control over pricing, over licensing, whether the game hits uh game pass or not. And then Microsoft would actually make the games work on Project Helix, on Windows PCs, on its Xbox branded handhelds, um, by owning the engineering side, the certification, and then support for all that backwards compatibility basically. So, the expanded Xbox Play Anywhere program, uh, this is the one that allows games to be played on any supported device. It already covers more than 1500 titles, right? Microsoft's expected to extend that model to new Helix and PC backwards compatibility releases over the next few years. That would build on a separate PC backward compatibility program for original Xbox games that Microsoft actually announced last month with plans to launch that in October. So, little confusing, but I think at the end of the day, Project Helix capable of running pretty much the back catalog of Xbox titles. And I think that's pretty significant. Yeah, there's there's a lot of steps along the way that we're talking about here. Like you were mentioning, uh the first step is the one you mentioned last. >> We're going to get four Xbox games that you can run on PC, but that's apparently just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, the emulator that's going to do that has the emulator to run the 360 games, which is part of the the news that we're talking about here is like, well, they've got the emulator to run the 360, and we have Tom Warren saying that, you know, they're they're out there talking about uh this pitch to port your games uh to PC. I think what they're aiming at is eventually if you have an Xbox game, you can run it on a Microsoft device, whether it's Windowsbased uh and made by somebody else, uh maybe it's a handheld uh Windows-based device, maybe it's a PC or Project Helix, which will be called Xbox Ridiculous name uh because the the names keep getting more ridiculous with every generation of Xbox. Uh, but yeah, you'll be able to you'll be able to buy an Xbox if that's what you want or just play things on the PC and it'll be a long road there, but eventually it won't matter when you bought it uh and what device you have. The the aim is to make everything playable across all of its own platforms. >> Now, this is this still requires though publishers of these games, whether those publishers still exist or not, right? to basically say yes, we want to do this and then those mechanations are happening. This isn't just like automatically Microsoft flips a switch and every single game in the history of Xbox catalog suddenly appears and there there still needs to be some sort of coordination there to actually I guess opt into the system to make >> yeah for the developers for the first party titles I assume Microsoft is just going to be like great you know we'll make those happen but for the third party developers yeah uh that's why I was trying to choose my words carefully of like it will be a long road to get there and the aim is to be able to play everything. We'll never get to being be able to play everything like you said. Um >> I I wonder too at what point we start talking about what to do about those games that don't have a publisher anymore or the rights are in question. You know, abandonedware is is a big deal in game preservation. This is less about game preservation. This is more about Xbox wanting to make it easy for you to make the decision to get a new Windows machine or Project Helix or whatever. Like, don't worry. you you won't lose any of your games. Disc to digital is also going to make it possible for them to stop making discs. >> That's what Sony has done, right? Is say, well, we're going to make it so that you can you can take your Sony discs and make them available for digital. Uh because we're not going to make discs anymore. Microsoft hasn't announced that yet, but my guess is they are facing the same economics that Sony is, which is too few people are buying the discs. It costs a lot to make the discs. it's not economically sensible to continue to make the discs. Uh, and so Sony already made the call. Microsoft's probably going to make that call in the next couple of years. >> Yeah. I mean, you know, I' I've mentioned it many times um on the show. I think like I'm I'm nostalgic. Um, you know, especially about old, you know, video games that I loved back in the day. I do see video games as art. I think those the video games do deserve to like be historically preserved in some way. And I know you're saying that this isn't about preservation, but it kind of it achieves something that I've always it can be. Yeah. Right. I've always wanted my consoles to work in in some sort of way like this. Like I I [snorts] realize that technically speaking, it's probably incredibly difficult to say every console that we release. We'll play all the back catalog of every console that we've ever released. Like that's a pretty tall order. But at the same time, like from a preservation standpoint, that would be the best of all worlds. And so this gets us a little closer to that. Even if it does mean a more discless future, and some people have a real problem with that, even if it does mean a little bit, you know, more lock in, let's say, as a result of that, it still gives you the option to to have access to these things that may, you know, maybe you don't have that old console around anymore, but you still really love that game. At least you have the option, and that's what I really want. >> Well, and technologically, it is easier now to do that than it used to be. It >> emulation, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. emulation has has become easier to pull off, easier to design for. That's why Microsoft is able to do this. Um, so I think it would be smart for Microsoft >> to lean into the preservation aspect of this a little somehow just just to build the goodwill of like, hey, we're going to try to work to to resolve abandonware issues and and make those available as well. That's probably three or four steps down the line because today what we're talking about is Tom Warren saw an internal memo, right? Microsoft is isn't even announcing anything yet. Uh so so we're getting ahead of ourselves on the road map, I suppose. But but yeah, I I think that would be a great thing for them to do. I'm I'm I'm with you on that. >> Is there an old like I I never owned an Xbox uh console. I I've owned plenty of PlayStations in the past, but never an Xbox. Did you? And is there one game that you're like, "Oo, I'd love to go back to that one." >> Not for Xbox. I had an Xbox 360 and an Xbox One. Um, >> but I can't think of anything I played on them that I that I have to go back to. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Most of the stuff that I feel that way about is from the '9s. >> I was going to say, yeah, the really the older things that are just easier to like >> That's why I have the Commodore 64 uh return, right? Cuz that that's my era. But if there's something you you folks out there are like, I know what I would want them to bring back first, uh, let us know. Feedbacknewshow.com. >> Love it. DTNS is made possible by you, the listeners. Uh we get the majority of our funding from Patreon. Uh and without our patrons and Substack subscribers, uh we would be half what we are now. So big thanks to folks like David Row, Johnny Hi-Tech Okei, and Chris Zaragoza for supporting the show at patreon.comdtns. >> All right, we got a lot of show to get to, so let's get into the briefs. >> Yes, indeed. Uh, I know it's all about Microsoft. Uh, feels like 2007 again where we're just covering [laughter] a lot of Microsoft stuff and people are complaining. >> Why do you cover Microsoft all the time? Uh, well, this is not a good news story for Microsoft. Microsoft released details of a hacking campaign against hotel Wi-Fi networks previously disclosed by a security company called Reliquest. So, Microsoft's just following on and saying, "Yes, what Riaquest said was true. Here's more details about it." Uh Microsoft is calling the campaign Captive Crunch. Little play on Captain Crunch there. Uh as it attacks the Captive Portal on hotel Wi-Fi networks. Captive portal is that little popup you get, you know, in a hotel you're going to enter your name and your room number or at a conference going to ask for your email address and solve a capture or something. It's that little popup, the captive portal that gets you onto the Wi-Fi network. Microsoft has not determined how they are getting into the captive portal though there are signs of a breach of some kind of shared infrastructure. So it could be some kind of supply chain attack on captive portal software, but they are getting in and the attackers are then able to modify DT DNS and HTTP traffic on those compromised networks. And once you're on the Wi-Fi, the attackers can then redirect you to a page that looks like a Microsoft 365 login portal or a Microsoft Entra ID fishing page. They're going to try to trick you into entering your Microsoft credentials. Basically, uh, the attackers also served fake browser and operating system update pages. So, if they can't trick you to get your Microsoft stuff in there, they might try to trick you into updating your browser or your operating system. And in any of those cases, once you do, they have your credentials and then they can serve malware for Windows and even Android, they think in some cases through click fix prompts. Microsoft described two types of malware that get installed as a result of all this. Cornflake is what they're calling uh the one that enables remote shell access and key logging and screen capturing and all the monitoring types of malware that watch what you do and record it. And then Choco Shell, the cornflake, somebody was hungry for breakfast when they were naming them at Microsoft this morning. >> Uh Choco Shell targets browser cookies, passwords, tokens, and Wi-Fi credentials. So one monitors you, the other tries to take all the authentication stuff they can find. Microsoft believes Captive Crunch has been active since early May. Uh the company recommends treating hotel and conference Wi-Fi as untrusted, which you probably already should have, but definitely treat it as untrusted now. Uh you probably are better off connecting through your cell carrier if you can. Uh they recommend avoiding doing any kind of software update or uh tool use when you are on a captive Wi-Fi connection. Uh recommend using fishing resistant authentication. uh MFA, pass keys, that sort of thing. Uh and disabling intra device code authentication if you don't need it. Uh also, don't use your corporate credentials to register on a guest Wi-Fi network because that's just giving them a leg up. Um some of this I know I know folks in the audience are like, well, I I try not to use those Wi-Fi networks anyway and I don't do anything, you know, uh important when I'm connected to hotel Wi-Fi or conference Wi-Fi. Uh which is good practice. Uh but it's also good to know that this is out there. So, you know, any of us may let our guard down when we're tired from a long day at a conference or a long day at work in the hotel afterwards and and so you it's good to be extra aware of this. >> Yeah. And particularly when you're traveling and you're staying at random hotel and that thing, you know, pops up for you to connect. That's not a prompt or a screen that you're accustomed to seeing necessarily used to seeing. And so patterns and things that might stand out might be less easy to spot because you just you aren't faced with that a lot. And so you know what I mean versus getting like like I if I get a a Google login screen that's been spoofed by some some place. I've seen a Google login screen a million times. I'm probably going to more easily I'm guessing um be able to spot like h wait a minute there's something off here. I'm not going to go down that. Again, the the captive portal login is not the part being compromised. uh you what it's doing is >> the channel through >> you get on the hotel or the conference Wi-Fi through the captive portal and then once you're on they have they have infiltrated that network >> and they're you type in microsoft.com to log into your 365 account and it redirects you from microsoft.com to their own Microsoft page and you don't notice because they're doing DNS. >> Yeah. Right. Right. and they've probably done a good job from these screenshots making it look like a Microsoft login page. Uh, and then of course now once you've put in your name and password and even your MFA, they have it and then they can use it. Um, Microsoft uh offers the ability to not use a password uh and and and just use pass key. That will be a big help because then if they redirect you to your fishing page, your pass key won't work, >> right? uh and and it won't log you in. So, it's one of the big advantages to pass key here is that it defeats this kind of of fishing attack. But then if you're on the hotel Wi-Fi and you get a like time to update your browser, um be careful if it's telling you to do controlV [laughter] to update your browser. Don't do it. Don't don't do that at all. >> Yeah, be careful out there, ladies and gentlemen. OpenAI posted on its company blog that Apple's trade secrets lawsuit that we've talked about in recent weeks um against it are uh is careless. This is their quote. Careless, aggressive, and oddly personal. [snorts] Uh lawsuit, of course, just to kind of bring you up to speed, alleges that former Apple employee Changlu access sensitive hardware files, including a presentation on Apple's um complex circuit boards after leaving the company. And then former Apple iPhone product designer Tang Tan sought proprietary details from Apple candidates after becoming OpenAI's chief hardware officer. OpenAI says that Apple's own staff asked Lou to help locate those files and that Tan warned his team never to use other companies confidential data. Open AAI included a very like a very lengthy amount of screen grabs from conversations and emails that it says support its claims. Uh this is in its blog post. Apple had initially demanded that OpenAI stop accessing and using any of its confidential information, preserve all related evidence, halt any ongoing use of of course, which OpenAI says it agreed to. But Apple also sought broader forensic analysis of devices and data sources and as well a search of OpenAI systems for additional confidential information. those demands not accepted by OpenAI while they were kind of talking and walking through this. So, as a result, Apple has now filed for a preliminary injunction in the US to bar open AAI and the two former employees from accessing, using or disclosing um potential and alleged trade secrets. part of Apple's um request, its expedited request for discovery is uh driven by what Apple says are another 11 former Apple employees who might have witnessed or have been involved in similar situations to what I'm just talking about here. OpenAI, of course, in this has said, quote, "We do not have nor want any of their trade secrets." So interesting for OpenAI to just kind of like air it all out with screenshots and conversations and everything. It's like >> interesting is a word. Uh uh strategy of public opinion uh is is another couple of words you could throw in there. Uh yeah, o open AI is taking offense. Uh and I'm I'm not sure why and I'm not sure that it's particularly helpful. Uh my guess is what happened? OpenAI also saying that they tried to that Apple uh says they tried to contact OpenAI in February. Uh and OpenAI says Apple contacted the wrong person after confusing two Asian last names, which is kind of throwing some shade. Didn't have to say they were Asian last names. You know, they could have just said two last names. Uh they there there are two sets of lawyers going to battle is what this looks like. and somebody on either the comm's side because it's a blog post or the exec side who pushed it to become a blog post said, "You know what? This is silly. Uh Apple doesn't want this to be dragged out into public. Let's drag it out into public." Uh and put pressure on them to let up on this because my guess is Apple found something. They were like, "I think they might have this this circuit diagram and and we need to make sure they don't." Uh there are also some emotions over Johnny IV going to work for OpenAI maybe uh and maybe that's one or two execs. Maybe that's not all of Apple. But it really feels like now it's the lawyers and once the lawyers start going at after each other, it all sounds incredibly [snorts] spiteful and mean. That's how that's how lawyers do this. That you don't win a case by being nice to the other side. Uh you don't win a case by being gracious to the other side. And so OpenAI decided like, well, Apple won't like it if we show that side of them in public. Let's do it. Uh, and maybe the public opinion pressure will pressure Apple to come to an agreement on this because I don't think OpenAI thinks there is much going on. >> Yeah. Yeah. I just wonder when when you go that next step and like start airing all the laundry in a public sense, do you in any way potentially damage the case down the line? I don't know what that would look like, but you know, it's a >> Yeah, I'm sure OpenAI's lawyers have vetted that carefully before that they did it. Yeah. Because >> I'm guessing there's nothing in that post that isn't also in a filing in the court, right? Yeah. >> So, but you're right. You do have to be careful. You wouldn't want someone to just go halfcocked and and just write a blog post because there could be something in there that >> would impact the case. So, from what I can tell, they're just taking a lot of the discovery stuff that is already in the court case and just putting it in public, >> it >> maybe trying to get ahead of that, saying like, well, these screenshots are going to leak anyway once they're Well, not leak, but they're going to become public anyway as part of the case, so let's just use them to our own advantage here. Mhm. >> Uh the World Bank put out an interesting report noting that developing economies might stand to benefit the most from large language models. Uh which is something even the World Bank didn't think it was going to find. It started the report expecting to explain the risks to developing economies from LLMs. Uh but chief economist Indil wrote, "As a rule, developing economies today have more to gain and less to fear from AI than richer ones. less than a tenth of their jobs are susceptible to AI automation compared with more than a third in highincome economies. In fact, 14.2% of jobs in rich economies can be automated uh versus 4.5% of jobs in developing companies or developing economies. Uh he also wrote, "AI can help by enabling less experienced workers to perform more advanced cognitive tasks, allowing some work to be shifted away from scarce specialists and making existing workers more productive. Basically, instead of having to wait for the developing economy's culture to either bring in people or train people, uh AI can bring them up to speed really fast." The report noted improvements like accurate medical imaging, faster clearance of court cases, better weather forecasts, things that you could just do without having to hire or train a specialist. Some of this comes from small models with fewer parameters that can run without needing a large data center or increased electrical power. In fact, the World Bank report recommends that uh these countries don't sink a lot of money into trying to build up a lot of data centers that are going to just use your electrical power but focus on the efficient models and the models will need to be customized. They'll need to be available in local languages. So that is something that would need to be overcome. The bank also advised countries buy model services and tools from several different countries uh because they want a developing economy to avoid becoming overly dependent on the US or China. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean when you think about like job displacement and this whole you know argument around AI or this this recurring theme around AI displacing jobs and everything a lot of the jobs that are more difficult at least right now what at a time when we don't have a whole lot of embodied humanoid robots you know roaming the earth with AI intelligence are those like manual labor jobs right agriculture construction factory roles those things are are largely um less touched by generative AI Then then things like call centers which is also something that I might you know imagine exists in some of these developing countries. You hear about a lot of call centers be very susceptible. >> The World Bank report did touch on that and said that the countries with that have uh uh like India for example uh has a large call center are going to be at a more of a disadvantage. Uh but not not all developing economies have that. Uh, and like you're saying, it's it's the if you have a large uh, you know, mo mediumskilled working class, you can probably replace a lot of those roles with uh, LLMs. I say roles because usually what happens is you replace the role and then you find other things for those people to do that you couldn't afford to pay them to do before. And they and so it doesn't actually destroy jobs. uh you know that that is the way it usually goes. We'll see. Uh but but in these developing economies, you don't even have people doing those roles. That's one of the reasons that the economies are struggling is they don't have the skilled labor. Well, suddenly the LLM shows up and you have a lot of skills available. And instead of going like, well, one parallegal can now do the job of 12, you're like, oh, we can have a parallegal. We didn't we didn't have one before and now we can do more with that. >> Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Uh well folks, if you want to join the conversation in our Discord, uh people in there are talking about this sort of thing quite regularly, as you might imagine. Uh you can join our Discord by linking to a Patreon account at patreon.com/dtns. All right, we got a gaggle of quick headlines that are good to know and will make you look smarter uh the minute we're done reading them. >> Yeah. No, guaranteed. Uh, for example, an entry on Apple's interoperability request in the EU shows the company has agreed to develop a solution to let extensions share and import iPhone clipboard items with paired devices, including Windows PCs. That's right, cut and paste between your iPhone and Windows coming to the EU and hopefully to the rest of the world. Apple thinks that it will complete development on this in fall 2027 and then it would show up in the next beta after that. Cross fingers on that. Worldwide, that sounds very useful. Samsung is going to start uh deploying the latest version of HDR10 Plus Advanced to 2026 TVs this month. Prime Video will be the first platform to support it. WhatsApp has added the ability to use at all to ping all the members of a group chat. Please use it responsibly. >> Yes. >> Uh the feature will only be available to admins if your group is larger than 32 people. >> Yeah, be careful with that one. Apple said it briefly removed Telegram from the app store after it found content that violated CSAM rules. However, the app was restored after Telegram removed the content and banned the user who posted it. >> But your algorithm knows that you're going to get upset when you see that Apple removed Telegram from the app store. So, it's going to keep showing you stories that say Telegram has been removed from the app store. So, this is a very good example of a story that's going to make you look smarter because you're like, "No, but they already put it back." Al, stupid algorithm. Go away. >> Uh, Apple's incoming CEO, John Turnis, has hired retired VP of hardware engineering, Laura Legros, uh, retired back in 2022. Uh, Laura Legros will return to Apple to take on the role of VP working cross functionality. >> H, a report from PaloAlto Network describes three attacks called Pasta Key uh, that target Google password manager and Chrome on Windows. The attacks need malware to be installed on a machine and target a vulnerability in Chrome and Google Cloud Authenticator. >> Yeah. And the big thing to remember here is that there is no compromise of pass key or pass keys encryption. It is compromising the way you manage your pass keys. Uh so it gets into the password manager and then tries to use stuff. Uh but pass key itself is is safe. So another example of like actually pass key is more secure because it takes this much. You have to have the malware running on the machine already which if malware is running on your machine it's going to be able to get out your passwords as well and it's harder to get at the pass keys. >> Uh nothing subsidiary CMF released its first clip style earbuds called the clip pro. They wrap around your ear like an earring. And the charging case, which looks a little like a lighter, uh, includes a dial, the smart dial, that can adjust volume control, playback, and answer your calls. It's 100 bucks. Come August 15th. >> Yeah, CMF likes to do the little dial on the case thing with their earbuds. One of those dials on the case actually changes the volume, which is kind of annoying. If you have that case in your pocket, you move [laughter] it around your volume starts going up and down. Anyways, [snorts] it's interesting. Different, let's say. >> Nice. The New York New York Times reports that in June, an Illinois judge certified the class uh in a class action lawsuit against Apple, alleging the feature of the photos app that can collect people by face violates an Illinois law requiring consent before biometric data is used and stored. Apple contends the feature cannot be used to recreate a face and is not linked to a person's name or identity. This case has been going for six years. >> [laughter] >> Oh, don't you love those cases? It's the case that never ends. Okay. >> Uh those are the essentials for today. And we've got some time to dive a little deeper. Yes. Do you want titanium ears? Trust me, you might. Uh maybe not the outer outer part, but the inside part. You can 3D print them, making some surgeries safer and more effective. Dr. Nikki is going to talk to us about why that is. Dr. Nikki, welcome back. It's good to have you. >> It's good to hear you, Tom. Ah, yes. Because you had me at 3D printed earbones. I'll be honest, I agreed to this segment before I read the story because of the name. Uh, but I have read the story now. And, uh, it turns out that the world's first middle earbone transplant using 3D printed components happened in 2020. We'll get to why it's in the news again right now. Uh, but back then they restored the hearing of the 40-year-old patient. Uh it occurred at the University of Ptoria in South Africa. So let's start with with how this works like bring us bring everyone back up to speed on on ears so that we we know why we need to 3D print something in the first place. >> This is perfect timing. The semester starts in two weeks. So here's biology 101 ears ears 101. Um so as you may or may not remember from school, hearing works through transmission of vibration. So a vibration will go into your ear and get transmitted to your eard drum through three small earbones. The malus stapes and incis or the uh hammer what did you hammer and >> hammer and stirrup. Yes, I remember that now from [laughter] grade school. Okay, good. >> And it'll go to what looks like a snail but it's not a snail is the cookia which is the spiral uh sensory hearing organ in your head. >> Yeah, the snails in our ears are >> important. Listen to this nail. Um, so these three small bones are called oicles. They are the smallest bones in the human body. And because they're so small, they're easily damaged. And when that happens, you can have hearing loss. Let's say you hit your head really hard. You might either move or damage those bones and then you can't hear those vibrations anymore. >> Yeah. So that that makes sense to me that uh those bones get damaged or maybe there's a genetic uh problem or something and replacing them would fix the problem. So how does 3D printing work into that? So before we use 3D printing for this, usually this type of hearing loss gets treated by uh replacing your oicles with donor tissue and usually that's from a cadaavver's oicles um or uh more other other types of surgery can use ceramic or stainless steel prostthesis. However, that surgery has a really high failure rate. Not because it's so small and finicky, but actually because it's really hard to get the prostthesis to be the exact right size for you to hear the right way because it's such a microscopic scale. >> So, so if you're getting a donor, right, you're going to get whatever size the donors. >> Yeah. I mean, even if their head's like the same size as your head, their obstacles may not be the same. >> May not be. And then I guess stainless steel and ceramics are just they're at that scale, it's just hard to get it precise. >> Exactly. And that's where 3D printing comes in and is really helpful, which is you can have a microscopic CT scan of the patient's head and oicles at an extreme level precision where you can then 3D print either their same bones and just kind of sculpt uh the broken one by repairing it or mirror the ones from the other side and you get an exact fix for their ear. >> Um, and that's what they did in 2020 and they used 3D printed titanium oicles and the surgery took less than two hours. And titanium's light >> it and that's good. And I guess it doesn't wear down too. So >> it's biocompatible. That's one of the big reasons. And it has uh it can transmit vibrations which is important. >> Okay. So that's where we were already which is impressive enough that you can put tiny 3D printed titanium earbones uh in your ear. Where are we now? >> So right that happened back in 2020. Now it's 2026. And there has been a recent study that investigates 3D printing an entire middle ear. So that includes the oicles but also the tempanic membrane which we would call eard drum. And basically what this study does is they use a microCT scan again to scan the cadaavver's middle ear. And what I thought was funny is to edit this scan down and make it workable they use blender. So like whatever tools people are using at home you use also for this which is great. >> That's amazing. I blunder the software blunder. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> And and then they printed this replica not only bones but eard drum using silicone and also 3D printed resin oicles. So they did a combination of hard and soft materials. Um and overall they were able to capture a model that responded to frequencies using a vibrometer similarly to the cadaavver's middle ear. Um, so we're not at the place where we're entirely replacing someone's ear with this uh silicone version, but in the trials it seems similar and they're basically trying to improve the prosthesis even further and and the types of things that you can replace as well. >> Yeah. So, so we're advancing uh with the materials with, you know, different using different kind of materials, which makes sense, especially when you're talking about the eardrum. You're not going to use titanium for the eardrum, I wouldn't think. No, that would work. And and they did include the printer specs, so like what kind of filament you're going to use or resin and uh how you want to put the settings. So you could theoretically 3D print this yourself. I wouldn't >> I wouldn't do the surgery yet. [laughter] >> Even though it takes less than two hours, I wouldn't do it. >> But it but if you could get a scan of your ear for some reason, then you could earbones. >> This is the hard part because I work with microCT quite a bit and the only problem with microCT is the field of view. So the area the space in which you have to put an object to scan is really small depending on how expensive your microCT machine is. So you could theoretically put a head in there but you'd have to find [laughter] the right machine and that's I think why they used the cadaavver specimen because they extracted the middle ear. >> Yeah, that makes sense. >> So that's the only hurdle though. >> But obviously if you're if you're in need of the surgery they will find a way to get the scan uh even if it's complicated without crushing your head. I think there is a device. The only reason I know this, I think there's a scan where you could do this because one of my colleagues scanned a rhino head and that's bigger than a human head. >> Yeah, there's got to be a way. >> Safe. I I don't [laughter] know. >> Well, and they've been doing scanning for the titanium ones that they did starting in 2020. So, there's some kind of scan. Uh, >> yeah. Well, those were based on cadaavver scans as well. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. So, there's options. >> Well, this is very promising uh and very uh helpful. Dr. Nikki, thank you for finding the story and bringing it to us. If folks want to find more of what you do, uh got any new shows you're doing these days? >> Oh, yeah. Well, you can with your new ears, you can listen to uh the new show that I'm doing with Quente Dao uh called Technical Tea. It launched uh Monday and it's great. [laughter] We talk about makeup, but in a tech way, so not really the way you would expect. We talk about cyber >> cyber computer vision and cyber decks and a million other things in between. It's a pretty big episode, but we're excited for you guys to listen to it. So, technical t.show everywhere. >> Fantastic. Go check it out. Technical TEA. Uh, thank you, Dr. Dicki. Talk to you again soon. >> Thanks for having me. >> I love it. It became a show. >> Yes. Yes. Technical has graduated. Yeah, that's amazing. Congratulations. >> All about ear health, too. So, that's a cool story. Uh, we end every episode of DTNS with some shared perspectives. Today, Sparky 64 reminds us of what line of sight actually means. [laughter] >> Uh, well, Sparky 64 wrote, "Line of sight means the drone operator has to be able to see the drone all time with their eyes. can't use binoculars, telescope monitors, telescope monitors, etc. Uh I knew the monitors thing. I I did not really realize until Sparky wrote that yeah, you can't even use assistive uh things if they're zooming. You can use your, you know, spectacles, but you can't use binoculars or a telescope. That's not line of sight. >> So then line of sight is not very far away at all because drones are pretty darn small to begin with, right? You know, so it doesn't take very long for them to be out of of your line of sight, out of distance. >> Yeah. Usually I think of like tree lines, you know, or buildings or something keeping me from seeing them, but you're right. Distance could be that. >> Yeah. There you go. >> Uh well, folks, if you've got something like Sparky has for us, you can send it to us. Uh any kind of thought, any kind of insight, you got a particular expertise on a story, send it to us. Feedbacktechnewshow.com. >> Yeah. Thank you again, Sparky 64, for contributing to today's show. Thank you also to Dr. Nikki for contributing. Excellent stuff there. And thank you for being along for Daily Tech News Show. You can keep us in business by becoming a patron at patreon.com/dtns. [music] We'll see you tomorrow. [music] >> The DTNS family of podcasts helping each other understand. Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this broker. [laughter]