Augmented Reality in the Real World

As Virtual Reality Grows, Augmented Reality Hits The Spotlight

With the excitement growing as Facebook's Oculus and HTC's Vive hit homes, the tech industry has begun to pay close attention to the sleeping giant of Augmented Reality.

" ...  AR takes a user's reality and "augments" it, adding to or changing the world that the user can see. Many companies have emerged in the space, including Magic Leap, which has raised over $1.1 billion in funding despite relative secrecy and Meta, which recently debuted a headset that augments the world around you, but requires a PC connected to work and is yet to ship. ... " 

Loyalty and Retention

Good idea, with emphasis on good experience design to make this happen.

A Loyalty Program Becomes a Retention Hub
Written by Alex McEachern | @alexmcea

 .... Today’s top ecommerce sites are using retention to battle increasing digital marketing costs and stagnating growth. There are a number of retention tools at your disposal, but it can become tough to manage those tools. The solution is to use a loyalty program as a hub for your retention marketing tactics.  .... " 

Deep Learning Lab for Future Cities

Announcing - AI / Deep Learning Lab for Future Cities - at University of Madrid

" .... I am pleased to announce the AI / Deep Learning Lab for Future Cities - at University of Madrid  .... We welcome call for Papers - please email me at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com if you are interested in the below  ... 

Created by Ajit Jaokar at citysciences, the aim of the lab is to explore cross domain, complex, AI related problems for future cities

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning technologies are impacting many aspects of our lives. In future, this impact is expected to accelerate to many more areas including Smart cities.

The problem we address
Many of the future problems facing city planners such as driverless cars, use of drones etc impact multiple facets in cities. To address them through AI technologies, we need to think beyond the current silo-based approach. We need to look to the interconnections between city areas. ...    " 

Smart Buildings Generate Data

In Siliconangle:  Every smart building should generate data.   From its processes, systems and devices.   That data should then be converted by analytic methods.  Then communicate with the people and 'things' we need to work with.

An Advanced Beginners Guide to R

Nicely done.    So you’ve gone through the Computerworld Beginner’s Guide to R and want to take some next steps in your R journey? In this advanced beginner’s guide, you’ll learn data wrangling, best packages to use for different tasks, how to make maps with R and more    .. " 

Accenture AI Consulting by Amelia and IPsoft

Interesting that Accenture openly uses the term AI.

Amelia Practice to Help Organizations Accelerate Adoption of Artificial Intelligence

Accenture and IPsoft Launch Accenture Amelia Practice to Help Organizations Accelerate Adoption of Artificial Intelligence

Initial practice focus is to deploy virtual agent technology for clients in banking, insurance and travel industries

NEW YORK; May 16, 2016 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and IPsoft today announced the creation of an Accenture Amelia practice, designed to accelerate client adoption of artificial intelligence to improve business outcomes and create new growth opportunities for their businesses. Accenture will utilize IPsoft’s Amelia platform to develop go-to-market strategies, solutions and consulting service offerings around deployments of virtual agent technology for clients across several industries with initial focus on banking, insurance and travel.  .... " 

Video

Cloud Based AI Skills

A look at some additional cloud based AI skills beyond Echo, Siri and Cortana   Not all are available today, notably long expected Samsung's Otto home control and camera system.    I was offered an early beta of that example, but am still waiting.

Conversational Advertising

More on conversational Advertising, today in AdAge. This could be the first time that ads truly become a 'conversation'. See my other posts on previous experience and findings in this space.   How does this relate to Bots?

What AI Means for Intent-Based Advertising
The biggest technology players are in a mad dash to develop the smartest conversational interface. ...  " 

Helping Drones Fly Indoors

From Augmented Pixels, a ompany I have had some conversations with, with a touch of space modeling?  Another Tango?  More about Augmented Pixels.

Watson Ads and the Retail Consumer

Some early comments in RetailWire  with discussion about Watson Ads by retail oriented tech practitioners.   See  my previous link on this, will be closely watching progress.

Will shoppers want to interact with AI ads?
The Weather Company, acquired by IBM in January, will begin rolling out digital ads that people can communicate with this fall. Powered by IBM Watson’s artificial intelligence, consumers will be able to ask questions via voice or text and receive relevant information about the product or offering.

The first companies to tap Watson ads will be Campbell Soup Company, GSK Consumer Healthcare and Unilever.

Unlike ads tied to keyword searches, Watson Ads are able to pick up the nuances of natural language. ... " 

On Trusting Robots

IEEE Special report on the topic of trusting robotics, or really any form of semi autonomous systems ...

" .... In the not-so-distant future, we will begin entrusting to robotic systems such vital tasks as driving a car, performing surgery, and choosing when to apply lethal force in a war zone. As we describe in this report, ever more autonomous machines will present challenges spanning technical, regulatory, and even philosophical realms. They will force us to confront deep moral quandaries, and might even tweak our sense of who we are. ... " 

Using Buzz Analytics

In McKinsey:  By capturing and analyzing social-media conversations, companies can improve their offerings and margins. 

Wal-Mart Superstore of the Future

A look at a Wal-mart Superstore of the future.  Slide show of mostly redesigns. Not too unexpected regarding technology involved. Apparently largely as a response to Target redesigns.

Securing a Quantum Key

Quantum Keys secure from quantum breaking methods? Out of U of Waterloo ....

" ... Researchers at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo developed the first available software to evaluate the security of any protocol for Quantum Key Distribution (QKD).

QKD allows two parties, Alice and Bob, to establish a shared secret key by exchanging photons. Photons behave according to the laws of quantum mechanics, and the laws state that you cannot measure a quantum object without disturbing it. So if an eavesdropper, Eve, intercepts and measures the photons, she will cause a disturbance that is detectable by Alice and Bob. On the other hand, if there is no disturbance, Alice and Bob can guarantee the security of their shared key. ... " 

Managing an Internet of Things

In Forbes:  " ... These DARPA Darlings Just Raised $20M To Build A Super-Powered Google For The Internet Of Things  ... "  by Thomas Fox-Brewster .  Good to see some of the ifrastructure process needs are being considered.

Towards a loss of Anonymity

Face recognition app taking Russia by storm may bring end to public anonymity ... FindFace compares photos to profile pictures on social network Vkontakte and works out identities with 70% reliability ...  " 

IFTTT Beyond the Recipe

The IFTTT describes and supports a set of recipes for action based on information channels.  Simple, and a great place to start.  But why not take the idea beyond the simple idea to implement embedded algorithms, and allow the simulation of the results actions under varying conditions?  A form of agent model.

IFTTT Continues to Build Channel Support

There are now 314 channels, includes connections to Samsung and GE Smart applicances.  From the BMW automotive lab, home smart security systems, Amazon Echo and much more.   Each channel has demonstrations of how it can be used.  

Allows you to trigger reactions based on input from channels you connect to.  A good demonstration of a simple internet of things.   I have a nice collection of triggers in place now.   It needs more participation and creativity.   More on IFTTT, with many business and home examples.

Do AI Doctors Save Lives

AI in Healthcare: Fascinating tech, but is it actually saving lives?
Computers excel at finding a signal in the noise, but we're still wary of AI doctors.  ... " 

Where Predictive Analytics is Working

In HBR: 
Where Predictive Analytics Is Having the Biggest Impact
by Jacob LaRivierePreston McAfeeJustin RaoVijay K. NarayananWalter Sun  .... 

 ... Once companies are logging and storing detailed data on all their customer engagements and internal processes, what’s next? Presumably, firms are investing in big data infrastructure because they believe that it offers a positive return on investment. However, looking at the surveys and consulting reports, it is unclear what the precise use cases are that will drive this positive ROI from big data.

Our goal in this article is to offer specific, real-world case studies to show how big data has provided value for companies that have worked with Microsoft’s analytics teams. These cases reveal the circumstances in which big data predictive analytics are likely to enable novel and high-value solutions, and the situations where the gains are likely to be minimal.  ... "