Do Retailers Need to Have the AI Talk With Consumers?

Likely not, but since its easy to do expect some tests

Do Retailers Need to Have the AI Talk With Consumers?    by Tom Ryan in RetailWire

Recent surveys show consumers are interested in but also increasingly concerned about potential threats from artificial intelligence (AI) with the arrival of ChatGPT and other generative AI.

A recent survey conducted by Forbes Advisor found 76 percent of U.S consumers were concerned with misinformation from AI tools such as Google Bard, ChatGPT and Bing Chat. Most were concerned about AI’s use for product descriptions, product reviews, chatbots answering questions and personalized advertising.

The findings suggest “a consumer demand for transparency and ethical AI practices to foster trust between businesses and their customers,” according to Forbes.

A survey from CX platform DISQO taken in early March found 34 percent of U.S. adults don’t think generative AI tools should be used for most consumer-facing content (43 percent among Boomers versus 21 percent for Gen Z).

The top-five concerns around AI were poorer accuracy, cited by 45 percent; lack of human touch, 38 percent; negative impact on jobs, 36 percent; low emotional depth, 35 percent; and more bias, 29 percent. Sixty-eight percent had a low overall knowledge level of AI-generated content tools.

“Consumers are wary and need to be informed and educated about what’s in it for them,” Patrick Egan, director of research and insights, DISQO, said in a statement.

A Morning Consult survey taken in mid-February found that while more than half of the U.S. public believes AI integrations into products and services are the future of technology, just one-third think AI technologies will be developed responsibly. One-third trust AI to provide factual results.

“We don’t need to be afraid of it, but we do need to be in control of it,” Massachusetts Congressman Jake Auchincloss told Morning Consult. “It can’t be like social media where it was allowed to scale and to influence much of our private and public lives before we really got a handle on it — and frankly, still haven’t gotten a handle on it.” ...'

Security in Cyberspace

Considerable piece in Fraunhofer mag,  intro below

More security in cyberspace

Web special Fraunhofer magazine 2.2022

The invasion of Ukraine shows that fighting is no longer just on the battlefield, but also in virtual space - with highly professional hacker attacks and targeted disinformation. How can Germany become more defensive?

Months before Putin gave his troops the marching orders, the war on the Internet began. Hackers have been preparing the Russian invasion since at least December of last year. This is the conclusion of Prof. Haya Shulman, who studied the cyber attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. Shulman heads the "Cybersecurity Analytics and Defences" department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT in Darmstadt, coordinates the "Analytics Based Cybersecurity" research area at the National Research Center for Applied Cybersecurity ATHENE and holds a chair at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.

One of their findings: The malware that caused the systems of the communications satellite KA-SAT to fail on the day Russia invaded Ukraine was smuggled in months ago. KA-SAT provides broadband internet to customers across Europe and is used by the Ukrainian Army for emergency communications. »The goal of the hackers was to stop the communication – and they succeeded.

It took a month for the damage to be repaired, at least for the most part,” says Shulman. The Russian attack on KA-SAT was also not without consequences in Germany and all of Central Europe: 5,800 wind turbines could no longer be maintained and controlled remotely. Systems in remote locations that are connected to the Internet via a satellite connection were affected. They continued to supply electricity. However, technical problems could only be identified and rectified on site.  ...... ' 

Quantum Communications, Computing

From Quantum Computing to Quantum Communications

By Michael A. Cusumano

Communications of the ACM, January 2023, Vol. 66 No. 1, Pages 24-27, 10.1145/3571450

Quantum computing has been slowly progressing both as a technology and potential new platform business (see my previous column, "The Business of Quantum Computing," Communications, Oct. 2018). But another application of quantum mechanics that has attracted increasing attention is quantum communications.12 In fact, the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded last October to three scientists for their experiments proving the reality of quantum entanglement, which is fundamental to quantum cryptography and secure communications.11 How did we get from quantum computing to quantum communications, and what is the business potential?

The same two physical phenomena that inspired quantum computing motivate quantum communications. The first is superposition. A quantum bit or "qubit" can behave as a wave as well as a discrete particle and exist in "super-positions" of states. That turns out to be the equivalent of 0, 1, or both simultaneously, rather than just 0 or 1, as in a digital computer. This characteristic as well as quantum interference (similar to how waves can amplify or "interfere" with each other) are fundamental to how quantum computers can potentially achieve exponential increases in computing power. The second is entanglement. This is the ability of two quantum particles (such as one photon split into two) to become connected and form a "system." The system pair can retain the specific correlations of the individual particles (such as a positive or negative spin in their energy states, which can translate into 0 or 1), even when physically separated.  (Click through for sign in) 

Playing with Chat GPT: A Future of Delivering Knowledge?

The end of journalism, or the ability to tell the difference?    Continuing toimprove.   But will some of us will still be needed to point out the key details?  Experimenting there too... 

ChatGPT shrugged

Natasha Lomas@riptari / 6:44 PM EST•December 5, 2022

ChatGPT is a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that’s designed to help people communicate with computers in a more natural and intuitive way — using natural language processing (NLP) technology. But what’s behind the development of ChatGPT and how can the tech be used to help humanity? These are some of the questions that we will explore in this article…

That rather bland lede, which we’ve slightly edited, was generated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT in response to a prompt by this (human) reporter. TechCrunch kicked off a conversation with the large language model by asking it to explain its function and purpose. We wanted to see if we could use the chatbot-style Q&A format it’s most recently been embedded into to probe the tech and get AI to articulate some of its limitations.

“ChatGPT is a natural language processing (NLP) model developed by OpenAI. It is designed to generate human-like responses to text input, allowing users to engage in natural, conversational interactions with the model,” the AI responded to our ice breaker. “ChatGPT works by using machine learning algorithms to analyze and understand the meaning of text input, and then generating a response based on that input. The model is trained on large amounts of text data, allowing it to learn the patterns and structures of natural language.”

Additionally, the bot told us its approach allows it to generate responses that are “relevant, coherent, and appropriate” to the context of the conversation. (With more probing, it went on to heavily caveat that claim — writing later: “It is important to note that my responses are not guaranteed to be perfect or always correct, and there may be cases where my responses may not be relevant, coherent, or appropriate.”)

ChatGPT further described its mission as being “intended to help humanity by providing a more natural and efficient way to interact with artificial intelligence” — expanding on its claimed purpose thusly:

By allowing users to communicate with AI in a more human-like way, ChatGPT can help to make AI more accessible and useful for a wider range of applications. This can help to improve the efficiency and accuracy of tasks that rely on natural language processing, such as language translation, text summarization, and information retrieval. Additionally, by providing a more intuitive and human-like interface for AI, ChatGPT can help to make AI more approachable and less intimidating to users who are less familiar with technology. Overall, ChatGPT is intended to help humanity by improving the usability and effectiveness of AI.  ... ' 

Free-Space Optics System Could Boost Space Comms

Free Space Optics

Free-Space Optics System Could Boost Space Comms

IEEE Spectrum. John Boyd.December 1, 2022

Researchers at Australia's International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) established a laser-guided free-space optical (FSO) link with the potential to enhance communications for space missions. The researchers maintained the FSO link despite stormy atmosphere between an optical ground terminal and a retroreflector on an airborne drone. ICRAR's Shane Walsh explained the framework supports "an uninterrupted 100-gigabits-per-second optical-data link. We do this by tracking the drone at angular rates up to 1.5 degrees a second—the equivalent of tracking a satellite in low Earth orbit [LEO]." Walsh said this clears a path for realizing terabit-per-second communications between LEO satellites and ground stations. ... ' 

Mysterious Cyberhack

Wathching the infrastructure for changes  

Mysterious Satellite Cyberhack       By Wired

March 28, 2022

The attack only impacted fixed broadband customers and didn’t cause disruption to airlines or Viasat’s US government clients, the company says, and no customer data was impacted.

More than 22,000 miles above Earth, the KA-SAT is locked in orbit. Traveling at 7,000 miles per hour, in sync with the planet's rotation, the satellite beams high-speed internet down to people across Europe. Since 2011, it has helped homeowners, businesses, and militaries get online. However, as Russian troops moved into Ukraine during the early hours of February 24, satellite internet connections were disrupted. A mysterious cyberattack against the satellite's ground infrastructure—not the satellite itself—plunged tens of thousands of people into internet darkness.

Among them were parts of Ukraine's defenses. "It was a really huge loss in communications in the very beginning of war," Viktor Zhora, a senior official at Ukraine's cybersecurity agency, the State Services for Special Communication and Information Protection (SSSCIP), reportedly said two weeks later. He did not provide any more details, and SSSCIP did not respond to WIRED's request for comment. But the attack against the satellite internet system, owned by US company Viasat since last year, had even wider ramifications. People using satellite internet connections were knocked offline all across Europe, from Poland to France.

Almost a month after the attack, the disruptions continue. Thousands still remain offline in Europe—around 2,000 wind turbines are still disconnected in Germany—and companies are racing to replace broken modems or fix connections with updates.

From Wired

View Full Article 

True Holograms in Person to Person Communications

Is it relevant?  Of course you could have asked this of multi person visual conference calling a few decades ago and got a negative. Our needs are driven by possibilities too.

When Your Boss Becomes a Hologram  

Bloomberg Businessweek, K Oanh Ha.March 3, 2022

Technology companies are developing holographic communications for businesses, which appeal to corporations forced by the pandemic to reconsider work protocols. Los Angeles-based firm Portl sells a booth that displays a life-sized three-dimensional (3D) hologram for remote interaction, using a camera, light, microphone, and backdrop. Meanwhile, Google is testing a booth with cameras and a glass screen where users can talk face-to-face with 3D images of each other; Microsoft produces holograms seen through virtual reality headsets. Some critics say Portl and its competitors provide two-dimensional holographic projections rather than true holograms. ARHT Media's Larry O'Reilly in Canada says full-size holograms demand more data than modern networks typically can relay. ... '

Communicating Blockchains

Intriguing statement and challenge, following up.

 An illustration of fragmented blockchains. How Can We Get Blockchains to Talk to Each Other?

IEEE Spectrum, Edd Gent, December 3, 2021

Stefan Schulte and colleagues at Austria's Vienna University of Technology are exploring communication between blockchains. The researchers developed a potential solution that relies on blockchain relays, smart contracts operating on one blockchain that can confirm events on another. The researchers have come up with an on-demand verification system, in which the relay assumes transactions between blockchains are valid unless they are disputed. Fraudulent submissions are discouraged because third parties must offer a cryptocurrency stake to participate, which disputants can seize if they prove invalidity. ... '

Virtual Reality Is a Game-Changing Computing and Communication Platform

Very good piece on the topic from CACM.      With some useful examples of VR uses beyond games.  Have been skeptical about its general use, see key insights below for good overview.   Note mention of 'virtual worlds' below which we actively examined. 

Six Reasons Why Virtual Reality Is a Game-Changing Computing and Communication Platform for Organizations   By Osku Torro, Henri Jalo, Henri Pirkkalainen

Key Insights:

VR can solve many critical bottlenecks of conventional remote work while also enabling completely new business opportunities.

VR enables novel knowledge-management practices for organizations via enriched data and information, immersive workflows, and integration with appropriate IS and other emerging technologies.

VR enables high-performing remote communication and collaboration by simulating or transforming organizational communication, in which altered group dynamics and Al agents can also play an interesting role. ... 

Communications of the ACM, October 2021, Vol. 64 No. 10, Pages 48-55  10.1145/3440868

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented disruptions to businesses, forcing them to take their activities into the virtual sphere. At the same time, the limitations of remote working tools have become painfully obvious, especially in terms of sustaining task-related focus, creativity, innovation, and social relations. Some researchers are predicting that the lack of face-to-face communication may lead to decreased economic growth and significant productivity pitfalls in many organizations for years to come.13

As the length and lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be reliably estimated, organizations will likely face mounting challenges in the ways they handle remote work practices. Therefore, it is important for organizations to examine which solutions provide the most value in these exceptional times. In this article, we propose virtual reality (VR) as a critical, novel technology that can transform how organizations conduct their operations.

VR technology provides "the effect of immersion in an interactive, three-dimensional, computer-generated environment in which virtual objects have spatial presence."5 VR's unique potential to foster human cognitive functions (that is, the ability to acquire and process information, focus attention, and perform tasks) in simulated environments has been known for decades.6,8,32 VR has, thus, long held promise for transforming how we work.33

Earlier organizational experiments with desktop-based virtual worlds (VWs)—3D worlds that are used via 2D displays—have mostly failed to attract participation and engagement.34,37 Increasing sensory immersion has been identified as necessary for mitigating these problems in the future.18 Therefore, sensory immersion in VR through the use of head-mounted displays (HMDs) can be seen as a significant step forward for organizations transferring their activities to virtual environments. In this regard, VR is now starting to fulfill the expectations that were placed upon VWs in the past decades, as per Benford et al, for instance.4

However, VR has only recently matured to a stage where it can truly be said to have significant potential for wider organizational use.17 In 2015, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg described VR as "the next major computing and communication platform."38 Although VR has received this kind of significant commercial attention, its potential in organizational use remains largely scattered or unexplored in the extant scientific literature.

Drawing on contemporary research and practice-driven insights, this article provides six reasons why VR is a fundamentally unique and transformative computing and communication platform that extends the ways organizations use, process, and communicate information. We relate the first three reasons with VR as a computing platform and its potential to foster organizations' knowledge management processes and the last three reasons with VR as a communication platform and its potential to foster organizations' remote communication processes.  ... ' 

On Communication with Animals

Are we closer to communication with parrots, chimps, dolphins?  Will it be a key aspect of AI? 

On Communication By Vinton G. Cerf  in CACM.

Communications of the ACM, August 2021, Vol. 64 No. 8, Page 5  10.1145/3472146

As I write this, summer is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere. I have just attended an online lecture about non-human species communication, sponsored by the Interspecies Internet project (interspecies.io). While the primary objective of the project is to determine experimentally whether it is possible to demonstrate communication between non-human species, there is also considerable interest in understanding the nature of intraspecies communication. The lecturer, Ofer Tchernichovski, explored years of experience with zebra finches. Of particular interest were their songs and how they propagated through generations of "tutors" and "pupils" among families of finches. Among the interesting observations he made was a concern that we sometimes bring preconceived but unwarranted notions to science. For example, consider the way in which we might analyze bird songs. We make audio recordings and spectral Fourier diagrams of the songs. We segment these vocalizations as if they might represent phonemes, but our segmentation could be inappropriately influenced by what we know of human speech.

Linguists have learned a great deal about human speech, how it is produced, and how the phonemes give structure to utterances. Whether we can apply such structural assumptions to bird songs is a matter for research. Tchernichovski points out that an alien arriving on planet Earth, even if it is capable of sensing human speech, might not have any idea how to segment sounds into phonemes and words. Language is a concept that organizes sound into phonemes, words, and sentences representing structures that follow grammatical rules and from which semantic content can be derived. The alien might not have any a priori clue as to how human languages are expressed, parsed, and give rise to semantic meaning. If the alien itself has language, it might adopt a protocol for human language discovery, starting, for example, with self-identification. .... "

Google Project Starline for Quality Personal Communications

Google has created and writes about their Project Starline.   Which they say a very high quality communications capability that mimics live face to face interaction.  Including eye movements and other emotional cues.   Without any specialized headsets or glasses like for VR.   They are testing it internally, and imply it works with 3D imaging and a 3D display in real-time.   No mention of it working on a phone.  Ultimately meant to compete with other pandemic era needs?

< ... An early technology, this "magic window" makes you feel like you're together, even when you're apart ... >

Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together    By Clay Bavor   VP, Google  in PRNewswire

People love being together — to share, collaborate and connect.  And this past year, with limited travel and increased remote work, being together has never felt more important.

Through the years, we’ve built products to help people feel more connected. We’ve simplified email with Gmail, and made it easier to share what matters with Google Photos and be more productive with Google Meet. But while there have been advances in these and other communications tools over the years, they're all a far cry from actually sitting down and talking face to face.

We looked at this as an important and unsolved problem. We asked ourselves: could we use technology to create the feeling of being together with someone, just like they're actually there?

To solve this challenge, we’ve been working for a few years on Project Starline — a technology project that combines advances in hardware and software to enable friends, families and coworkers to feel together, even when they're cities (or countries) apart.

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.

To make this experience possible, we are applying research in computer vision, machine learning, spatial audio and real-time compression. We've also developed a breakthrough light field display system that creates a sense of volume and depth that can be experienced without the need for additional glasses or headsets.

The effect is the feeling of a person sitting just across from you, like they are right there. 

A breakdown of how Project Starline works from 3D imaging to real-time data compression to 3D display.  Key breakthroughs include 3D imaging, real-time compression and a 3D display.

One of the things we are most proud of is that as soon as you sit down and start 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 available in just a few of our offices and it relies on custom-built hardware and highly specialized equipment. We believe this is where person-to-person communication technology can and should go, and in time, our goal is to make this technology more affordable and accessible, including bringing some of these technical advancements into our suite of communication products.  .... "

On Clearer Communications in Unclear times

Well done piece in HBR on implied rules of communications.  Have they changed?  Been made more important in hybrid times?  Now that we have a dozen more ways to communicate.   Below link to the broader article in Quester. 

Did You Get My Slack/Email/Text?  by Erica Dhawan    in HBR 

Summary.   We are in the midst of a major transition from remote to hybrid work. As this shift is happening, it’s essential for managers to establish norms around digital communication with their teams. Having a detailed guide will help ensure that everyone on your team is on...more

Back when we were in the office, we all knew the unwritten rules of communication. If someone had large headphones on, they probably were focused on work, and didn’t want to be interrupted to gossip about the latest drama. Or if your team was about to have an important meeting with a client, you would quickly run through last-minute questions before walking into the room.

We all learned these communication norms by observing our colleagues. But now with the rapid shift to hybrid work there is a need to create new rules for digital communication. Somehow it seems that the more platforms we have at our disposal, the more complicated digital communication gets.

I published a research study with Quester this month called “The Digital Communication Crisis” to understand the challenges that we all face in workplace digital communication. Through a survey of almost 2,000 office workers, we found that over 70% experienced some form of unclear communication from their colleagues. This leads to the average employee wasting four hours per week on poor or confusing digital communications, which adds up to an average annual amount of $188 billion wasted across the American economy.  ... ' 

(The additional stats in 'The Digital Communication Crisis', linked to above are interesting, and could help you redesign communications in your workplace. ")

Connected Communications

Satellite connectivity for challenges like emergency communications. 

Connecting machines in remote regions  by Zach Winn, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

On Nov. 26, seven fishermen aboard a small fishing boat off the coast of Maharashtra in western India were struck with panic when their vessel was damaged and began to sink. The panic was warranted: The boat was too far from shore to radio for help.

Tens of thousands of fishermen find themselves in a similar situation around the world every year. Globally, the vast majority of small, deep-sea fishing vessels do their work totally disconnected, leaving them vulnerable to storms and other disasters.

At the root of the problem is the high cost of satellite connectivity in areas like oceans, forests, and mountains, which make up the majority of the Earth's landmass. Now the startup Skylo, co-founded by Parth Trivedi SM '14, is offering the ability to communicate with satellites from anywhere on the planet for less than 10 dollars a month.

Skylo's team has developed a new antenna and communication protocol that allows machines, sensors, and other devices to efficiently transmit data to the geostationary satellites already deployed in space. The company says its technology enables satellite communications at less than 5 percent of the cost of existing solutions and could bring an "internet of things" revolution in the world's most remote regions.

With the Skylo Hub, which resembles a modem and contains the company's proprietary antennae, deep-sea fishermen can go from being isolated and vulnerable to having the ability to send out emergency communications, receive storm alerts, and even sell their catch before they return to port. Farmers in remote regions can get real-time data on weather forecasts, soil content, and crop health. Truck drivers and fleet operators that were previously invisible for large stretches of their journeys can be precisely located and their cargo monitored. ... " 

Nokia Introduces Beacon for Wi-Fi 6 Mesh

Good to see more out of Wifi for enhanced communications.    Nokia puts out a useful overview of the capabilities.

Nokia introduces new Wi-Fi 6 mesh router and technology innovations to deliver ultimate gigabit experience in a 5G world

 

Nokia adds the Beacon 6 to its whole-home WiFi portfolio, which already includes the Beacon 1, the Beacon 3 and family of mesh fiber gateways

Beacon 6 is the first Nokia Wi-Fi device to support Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi Certified EasyMesh™ along with the Nokia WiFi Cloud Controller to manage mesh WiFi remotely.

Nokia first to deliver a seamless transition for mobile devices moving between 5G and Wi-Fi 6 to maintain throughput and low latency for video streaming and cloud gaming applications

Nokia also pioneering support for low-latency technology innovations for Wi-Fi networks that revolutionize the way users experience the internet and gaming applications

Nokia Bell Labs researchers have significantly contributed to development of Wi-Fi 6

19 March 2020

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced it is adding a new Wi-Fi 6 Beacon to its whole-home WiFi portfolio, helping operators to deliver a powerful user experience. Providing a high-capacity, high-performance in-home solution, the new Beacon 6 uses Wi-Fi 6 to deliver 40 percent faster speeds than previous Wi-Fi generations.

To further enhance the in-home experience, Nokia is also adding low-latency technology built on Nokia Bell Labs innovations to its Wi-Fi portfolio. Drastically improving residential Wi-Fi networks, the Nokia Beacon 6 provides operators with an easy to install solution that can support low-latency applications such as gaming and gigabit speeds essential for creating a seamless end-to-end 5G experience.

Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight said: “The benefits of 5G are going to change user experiences and customers’ expectations. The blend of the latest Wi-Fi 6 technology, low latency performance and in-home Wi-Fi mesh solutions linked to 5G will allow operators to deliver a seamless communications platform for next generation applications and solutions.”

Currently more than 25 percent of homes globally are connected to a Wi-Fi network and there are about 5 billion Wi-Fi-connected devices in the home including home computing, smart TVs and smart home devices. To cope with this growth, operators and end-users are investing in devices that support Wi-Fi 6, a new Wi-Fi standard that improves speed by at least four times in dense areas and reduces latency by 75 percent1.

The Beacon 6 is the first Nokia WiFi device to showcase several new technologies working seamlessly together. This includes:   ... "

Why all Those Satellites?

Been watching all those Starlink satellite launches.  60 per launch.  Being an observational astronomer ave been concerned about  throwing all that stuff into orbit.    Here is the motivation.

Elon Musk Says He's About to Deliver the Future of High-Speed Internet
Get your investment dollars ready.  .... 
By Don Reisingerin Inc.

Elon Musk has been saying for years that he believes the future of the internet resides in space. And now he's planning to make a major change that could facilitate that transition sooner rather than later.

In a move that could send shock waves through the internet space, SpaceX is planning to spin out its Starlink satellite-based internet service into its own entity. It'll also make Starlink public, allowing investors to get a piece of what Musk believes is the future of internet connectivity  ... " 

Quantum Quitrit Teleportation Report

Very impressive next steps.  Its implications still unclear.   If this works, we might be able to solve very difficult problems more quickly.  Note its still no where near 'beam me down' capability as yet.  Still following closely due to our early connections.

“Qutrit” Experiments Are a First in Quantum Teleportation
The proof-of-concept demonstrations herald a major step forward in quantum communications

By Daniel Garisto on August 6, 2019
in Scientific American

Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China and the Austrian Academy of Sciences say they have teleported a tripartite unit of quantum information known as a qutrit, which embodies the superposition of the quantum states of 0, 1, and 2. Two separate teams generated qutrits using the triple-branching path of a photon, manifested in optical systems of lasers, beam splitters, and barium borate crystals. The teams then verified the qutrits' entanglement, or Bell state, in order to prove their high-fidelity conveyance of data. One team claimed their Bell state measurement, across 10 states, fulfilled the parameters of a successful proof of concept; the other team disputes this, arguing its experiment was more successful. Said William Wootters of Williams College, “Each of these [experiments] is an important advance in the technology of teleportation."  .... "

Humanoid Sign Language

Robotic Sign Language

A robotic hand making a gesture in sign language. UC3M Programs a Humanoid Robot to Communicate in Sign Language 
Carlos III University of Madrid (Spain)
July 8, 2019

The_UC3M_programmes_a_humanoid_robot_to_communicate_in_sign_language
Researchers at Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M) in Spain have programmed a humanoid robot, named TEO, to communicate in sign language. The team used simulations to indicate the specific position of each phalanx (finger bone) in depicting specific signs from Spanish Sign Language. The researchers then reproduced each position with the robot’s hand, trying to make the movements similar to those a human hand would make. To date, TEO has mastered the fingerspelling alphabet of sign language, as well as a very basic vocabulary related to household tasks. Said UC3M researcher Jennifer J. Gago, "The deaf people who have been in contact with the robot have reported 80% satisfaction, so the response has been very positive."

Alexa Expands the Ability to 'Announce'

At first this seemed like a trivial thing, you can send information to a group of people.  Or other internal devices, or external things.  So this is like a specific form of communications,  I can reply, or wait for more information.   A means to effect crowd sourcing.   Crowd sourcing  about specific needs?   We do it in conversation all the time.   Something here that could be expanded.

Alexa's intercom-like broadcasts come to more non-Echo devices
You could send announcements through your thermostat.

By Jon Fingas, @jonfingas in Engadget

Amazon has slowly been expanding the circle of devices that can use Alexa Announcements, but now it's throwing the gates wide open. The company has made the intercom-like feature available to any device with Alexa support built-in -- you could use your thermostat or fridge to tell the kids that dinner is ready. In theory, you won't have to visit a specific room like you might today.

The feature requires device makers to implement it, and not every product will necessarily qualify. They'll have to support converting MP3 files 45 seconds or longer to an Alexa-ready format. There may still be gaps in Announcements support even if your home is full of Alexa devices. Still, this could make the broadcasting tool far more flexible in the long run. ... " 

Repairing a Satellite with Deep Learning AI in Space

By predicting lost data from other existing sources using deep learning.  Note the alternative uses of the approach, say in the case of solar storms.  Considerable complexity with varying goals.

IBM helped NASA fix one of its satellites using cutting-edge deep learning A.I.
How do you fix a satellite that’s floating 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface?

That’s a question that NASA had to answer when it ran into problems with one of its crucial satellites. The satellite in question was the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which launched in 2010 with the important goal of studying the Sun and the effects of solar activity on Earth. This is important for all sorts of reasons — not least because solar storms can knock out GPS satellites, shut down electrical grids, and scramble communications.

Unfortunately, one of the SDO’s three instruments, responsible for measuring ultraviolet light, stopped working due to a fault. This data is essential to satellite operators, since it can affect the flight path of orbiting satellites. Not properly compensating for atmospheric changes due to ultraviolet light may cause satellites to fall out of orbit and burn up or crash.

It was deemed too costly to repair the $850 million satellite in space. As a result, NASA called in experts from IBM, SETI, Nimbix, Lockheed Martin, and its own Frontier Development Lab to see if they could solve the problem from Earth using cutting-edge artificial intelligence. The request? Could they figure out how to use data from the SDO’s remaining two instruments — its atmospheric imaging assembly and helioseismic and magnetic imager — to work out the missing ultraviolet radiation measurements. The answer: Apparently, yes.

“One of the biggest challenges was to find the optimal A.I. framework and model for the problem at hand — namely, virtually ‘resurrecting’ the failed SDO instrument so that we could once again get the data that instrument would have produced if it was still working,” Graham Mackintosh, A.I. advisor to SETI and NASA, told Digital Trends. “The team automated the task of modifying, testing, and recording the results of almost 1,000 different versions of the deep learning model before settling on the final approach they determined to be optimal.”  .... "

Influence of 5G on Cable?

A look at the emergence.  Podcast and transcript.   Personal and civic infrastructures that will need to be updated?  " .... Expectations are riding high for the next generation of wireless technology, but is 5G ready to compete with wired broadband networks? ... " 

The Promise and Pitfalls of 5G: Will It Kill Cable?
Wharton’s Kevin Werbach and Jeffrey Reed from Virginia Tech discuss whether 5G technology will live up to its promise.

In December, the Federal Communications Commission will undertake the largest spectrum auction in U.S. history — putting 3.4 GHz of airwaves on the market to free up space for 5G communications. As the next generation in wireless technology, 5G promises to boost data speeds by up to 100 times, making them competitive with the fastest wired broadband networks. In April, the White House planted an official stake in the 5G race, with President Trump calling it a “big deal,” as it will change the way Americans work, learn, communicate and travel.

A lot of expectations are riding on 5G, for good reason. The technology offers “potentially gigabyte speeds over wireless, fast enough that for the first time wireless could be a competitive alternative for wired systems — like cable- and phone-based and fiber-based systems — for basic broadband access,” said Kevin Werbach, a Wharton professor of legal studies and business ethics who used to work for the FCC, on the Knowledge@Wharton radio show on SiriusXM.

5G also could usher in new innovations to supercharge the “internet of things” and mobile broadband applications, among others. “It is very important for the U.S. to adopt this technology early. And the reason is that it is going to form the basis for innovations in a variety of areas, such as smart grid and smart connected automobiles, and factories of the future,” said Jeffrey Reed, Virginia Tech professor of electrical and computer engineering and founding director of Wireless@Virginia Tech. (Reed joined Werbach on the Knowledge@Wharton show. Listen to the podcast above.)   .... "