Consumer Excitement for New Tech in Pandemic?

Posted earlier in the year.   Is this excitement lasting?

Study Shows Consumer Excitement For Drones, Self-Driving Vehicles Has Grown Amid Pandemic   By TWICE

U.S. consumers' enthusiasm for autonomous delivery technologies – including drones, self-driving vehicles, and robots – is growing during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® Autonomous Delivery Systems: Consumer Awareness & Favorability Study.

The study finds one-quarter (26%) of consumers now view autonomous delivery technologies more favorably than before the coronavirus health crisis.

Half (49%) of consumers rate these technologies as somewhat or very favorable.

"With the increased need for contactless delivery, consumers are getting first-hand experience and becoming more familiar and comfortable with autonomous systems such as self-driving vehicles and drones," said CTA's Lesley Rohrbaugh.

"Our data shows that these emerging technologies are playing an important role in delivering essential groceries, household items, and medical supplies."

Considering the Graph Database

A useful challenge, in general graphic databases are more indicative of what they show.    But they also introduce levels of complexity that has to be understood.

Graph databases are proven architectures for storing data with complex relationships. Why aren't more companies using them?
   
 By Isaac Sacolick in InfoWorld

Twenty years ago, my development team built a natural language processing engine that scanned employment, auto, and real estate advertisements for searchable categories. I knew that we had a difficult data management challenge. The data in some ad types were relatively straightforward, like identifying car makes and models, but others required more inference, such as identifying a job category based on a list of skills.

We developed a metadata model that captured all the searchable terms, but the natural language processing engine required the model to expose significant metadata relationships. We knew designing a metadata model with arbitrary connections between data points in a relational database was complex, so we explored using object databases to manage the model.

What we were trying to accomplish back then with object databases can be done better today with graph databases. Graph databases store information as nodes and data specifying their relationships with other nodes. They are proven architectures for storing data with complex relationships.

Graph database usage has certainly grown during the past decade as companies considered other NoSQL and big data technologies. The global graph database market was estimated at $651 million in 2018 and forecasted to grow to $3.73 billion by 2026. But many other big data management technologies, including Hadoop, Spark, and others, have seen much more significant growth in popularity, skill adoption, and production use cases compared to graph databases. By comparison, the big data technology market size was estimated at $36.8 billion in 2018 and forecasted to grow to $104.3 billion by 2026.

I wanted to understand why more organizations aren’t considering graph databases. Developers think in objects and use hierarchical data representations in XML and JSON regularly. Technologists and business stakeholders intrinsically understand graphs since the Internet is an interconnected graph through hyperlinks and concepts like friends and friends of friends from social networks. Then why haven’t more development teams used graph databases in their applications?  .... 

AI and Generative Design

Nice piece, an excerpt of article and at the bottom a pointer to a NASA example of its use. 

AI, Architecture, and Generative Design

Algorithmic Brainstorming for Creative Work

Jonathan Follett and Dirk Knemeyer  in TowardsDataScience

Architecture, like many creative professions, spans both the digital and physical world. As technologies such as 3D printing move the discipline forward in remaking the built environment, AI and generative design are having an impact on architecture from a planning and design perspective, where the profession is largely digital and computational. We spoke with Lilli Smith, Senior Product Manager AEC Generative Design at Autodesk, a practitioner in the field of architecture for more than 20 years — the last 18 of which have been making the software that architects use to design their creations.

In architecture, art, and other creative fields, generative design is a methodology that automates the creation of design options that may balance a variety of competing goals. The latest wave of generative design is driven by artificial intelligence. “This is often the case in architectural design problems,” Smith says. “There’s not a single objective that you’re trying to go after — there’s no one answer. But, there’s a lot of different objectives that come into making an architectural project. So, for example, in an urban design workflow, having a nice amount of open space and good views from your property might be important. But return on investment and value generated through more rentable area[s] might also be important.”   .... ...

In a more recent example of AI-driven generative approaches, NASA used programmatic design to create configurations for its satellite antennas. Jason Lohn, the leader of this project at NASA Ames Research Center, described the algorithmic approach to design in a feature article published by the agency in 2006:   ..... 

NHS Signs Up for Tim Berners-Lee Pilot to Reinvent Web

 Becoming necessary, if only for security,  But the design needs to be carefully done to ensure freedom of speech.

NHS Signs Up for Tim Berners-Lee Pilot to Reinvent Web  (Paywall) 

From Financial Times   John Thornhill

The U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS) is one of more than a dozen partners that have signed up for a pilot program of Inrupt, a company founded by World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, to promote a new Web data architecture. Inrupt launched its first enterprise-ready social-inked data (Solid) servers, which Berners-Lee, recipient of the 2016 ACM A.M. Turing Award, called a "huge milestone" in breaking down existing data silos and recreating more interconnected networks. Solid, co-developed by Berners-Lee and Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer scientists, enables users to produce their own Pods (personal online data stores) in order to control and grant access to third-party applications. The NHS is running a pilot project that lets users store their personal medical data in their own Pods, upload additional information from other lifestyle apps, and share that data with doctors and care providers.  ... '

Volcanic Eruption Detection

 I like the interaction between drones, sensors, AI and predictive analytics,  so although this example is fairly esoteric, there are probably things to learn from it.  Adding in some predictive risk analysis would be good as well. 

Drone Technology Improves Ability to Forecast Volcanic Eruptions

UCL News

An international team of researchers led by the U.K.'s University College London modified long-range drones that collect data from active volcanoes, in order to better forecast eruptions. The ABOVE project used drone measurements from Papua New Guinea's Manam volcano to demonstrate the ability to gain predictive insights by combining air, Earth, and satellite-based data. Project collaborators co-developed techniques to measure gas emissions from volcanoes via drones, blending in situ aerial measurements with readings from satellites and ground-based remote sensors. Said Alessandro Aiuppa of the University of Palermo, “Ten years ago, you could have only stared and guessed what Manam’s CO2 emissions were. ... '

New Dash Replenishment Shelf

 Alas the Amazon DASH replenishment Button, which we tested for a few years in stores and at homes  is gone. We were much into 'ease-of' and automatic replenishment tech in innovation centers and Smart home designs.   Well now DASH is back, but aimed at the small office with an automated weight driven  shelf.   Will this work, and for who? Below a sort description and discussion.   It turns out this shelf is not a new Dash idea, we were offered to test it back then,  but elected the consumer order button design.   Can we help you test?

Will Amazon’s Dash Smart Shelf drive auto-replenishment from SMBs and consumers?  by Tom Ryan in Retailwire

Amazon.com, after retiring the Dash Button last year, has introduced a replacement, Dash Smart Shelf, that promises to shake up the office supplies space and bring auto-replenishment to households.

Costing $19.99 each, Dash Smart Shelf is a weight-sensing, Wi-Fi-enabled auto-replenishment scale. When placed on a flat surface, such as a warehouse rack, it can track inventory for commonly used products. When it senses supplies are running low, a replenishment order or notification is automatically sent.

The system offers three scale sizes; each scale can only be paired with one product at a time. Amazon says that “thousands of popular products” including most household and workplace staples can be replenished under the program.   .... '

Alexa Guesses Intent, Latent Goals

 Quite interesting,   but this depends on the results.  Admirable idea.   Based on what I read it seems this will at least somewhat depend on suggesting existing skills that address goals and needs.    And I still don't see how these skills will fill in the gaps that might exist.    Will be watching.

Alexa gets smarter as Amazon boosts AI models with ‘latent goal’ detection   By Maria Deutscher in SiliconAngle

Amazon.com Inc. is enhancing Alexa with new artificial intelligence models that can help users find useful Skills, or apps, to install on their smart speakers.

Alexa Skills are created by third-party developers and provide features not included by default in the voice assistant, such as the ability to control smart lights or tune into a local radio station. There are more than 100,000 free and paid Skills available.

Amazon says Alexa can can now suggest Skills that it believes a user may find handy by inferring “latent goals” from their commands. For example, if a user asks Alexa a history question, the voice assistant might reply with the desired information and then follow-up by asking whether they’d like to download a Skill that can launch history quizzes. When Alexa is asked to find the stock price of a company, it could recommend a financial Skill that can provide additional information on the markets. ,, "

Holographic Video Display for Mobile Phones

 New directions for display on mobile phone, multi dimensional?  Implications for typical phone tasks?  Advanced marketing?Sounds impressive.

Thin Holographic Video Display for Mobile Phones

IEEE Spectrum, Charles Q. Choi

At South Korea's Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, researchers have invented a method for creating a thin holographic video display that may eventually enable 4K three-dimensional videos on mobile phones. The display has a special backlight with a beam deflector that can tilt the angles of coherent light beams from laser diodes, expanding the viewing angle 30-fold without increasing the number of pixels required. The Samsung researchers also used a slim geometric phase lens to gather scattered light from the pixels, shrinking the optical components' thickness to just 1 centimeter. The display’s single-chip holographic video processor can perform about 140 billion operations per second to generate 4K holographic color images at a speed of 30 frames per second.  ... 

Quantum Networks

Technical, hardware.

Building a Quantum Network, One Node at a Time

University of Rochester NewsCenter   By Bob Marcotte

A nanoscale quantum node fabricated from magnetic and semiconducting material by researchers at New York State’s University of Rochester and Cornell University could interact with other nodes though the use of laser light to send and receive photons. The node is built from an array of pillars just 120 nanometers high, within a platform containing atomically thin layers of tungsten diselenide and chromium triiodide. Each pillar is a location marker for a quantum state that can engage with photons, and the associated photons can potentially interact with other sites across the device, and with similar arrays at other locations. Rochester's Arunabh Mukherjee said the development “will go a long way in miniaturizing a quantum computer based on single hole spins."

Causality is Important for Machine Learning

Have always thought causal thinking and learning was a major consideration for the future of AI in general.  Here a step in the right direction.  But overall its still a hard question.

Understanding Causality Is the Next Challenge for Machine Learning

Teaching robots to understand "why" could help them transfer their knowledge to other environments  By Payal Dhar

“Causality is very important for the next steps of progress of machine learning,” said Yoshua Bengio, a Turing Award-wining scientist known for his work in deep learning, in an interview with IEEE Spectrum in 2019. So far, deep learning has comprised learning from static datasets, which makes AI really good at tasks related to correlations and associations. However, neural nets do not interpret cause-and effect, or why these associations and correlations exist. Nor are they particularly good at tasks that involve imagination, reasoning, and planning. This, in turn, limits AI from being able to generalize their learning and transfer their skills to another related environment.

The lack of generalization is a big problem, says Ossama Ahmed, a master’s student at ETH Zurich who has worked with Bengio’s team to develop a robotic benchmarking tool for causality and transfer learning. “Robots are [often] trained in simulation, and then when you try to deploy [them] in the real world…they usually fail to transfer their learned skills. One of the reasons is that the physical properties of the simulation are quite different from the real world,” says Ahmed. The group’s tool, called CausalWorld, demonstrates that with some of the methods currently available, the generalization capabilities of robots aren’t good enough—at least not to the extent that “we can deploy [them] safely in any arbitrary situation in the real world,” says Ahmed.

The paper on CausalWorld   , available as a preprint, describes benchmarks in a simulated robotics manipulation environment using the open-source TriFinger robotics platform. The main purpose of CausalWorld is to accelerate research in causal structure and transfer learning using this simulated environment, where learned skills could potentially be transferred to the real world. Robotic agents can be given tasks that comprise pushing, stacking, placing, and so on, informed by how children have been observed to play with blocks and learn to build complex structures. There is a large set of parameters, such as weight, shape, and appearance of the blocks and the robot itself, on which the user can intervene at any point to evaluate the robot’s generalization capabilities. ...  '

Wolfram and Ethereum

Saw this late, but interesting.

Investigating the Ethereum Gold-Bug and Blockchain in the Wolfram Language

Wolfram Blog by Christian Pasquel 

Blockchain was integrated into the Wolfram Language in 2018 with the release of Version 11.3, featuring a set of functions that is constantly improved and expanded upon by our team. Currently supporting a seamless connection to the Bitcoin, Ethereum, ARK and bloxberg mainnets, testnets and devnets, Wolfram introduced to the distributed ledger technology (DLT) space its philosophy of injecting computational intelligence everywhere through Wolfram Blockchain Labs, with the mission of enabling blockchain-based commerce and business model innovation.  ... 

Simulating the PowerGrid

We are much in need of better power grid simulations.  PNNL is working on it. Note the broader look at multiple task modeling and improvement.  Worth looking at for other industrial multiple task and goal operations.  Full and more detailed article at the link. 

PNNL Researchers Speed Power Grid Simulations Using AI

New artificial intelligence approach holds promise to deliver fast, accurate results; could benefit other national priorities

Lynne Roeder, PNNL

Conceptual artwork for multitask learning in power gird simulations

Most modern phones and cars are programmed to “learn” from their environment—sounds, facial features, and even common driving routes. Patterns of recognition allow these systems to accurately predict and suggest preferred options in the blink of an eye.

Now imagine a system that could provide the same precision and responsiveness for critical national challenges, such as disease diagnoses, weather forecasting, and power grid reliability.  

A new software application called the Smart Power Grid Simulator (Smart-PGSim) uses neural networks, a type of artificial intelligence (AI), to efficiently solve power grid simulations crucial for planning and optimizing electricity delivery. Initial test results showed Smart-PGSim solved power flow calculations about three times faster than a traditional numerical model, without a loss in precision.

Developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) computer scientist Gokcen Kestor and collaborators from the University of California, Merced, the methodology behind Smart-PGSim uses a novel neural network approach called multi-task learning modeling. The researchers believe it is the first such application of AI for the power grid. ... "

Shaping Future Strategy with Wargaming

Early in my career worked in the DOD.  We worked lots of simulated decisions for many operational reasons.   More like you might see in classic gaming, than  you would see in modeling a business supply chain process.   To look at the implications in context of particular decisions.  The risks of others.

What Strategic Decisions on the Horizon for the Department of Defense Can Best Be Shaped Through Wargaming?
by Sebastian Joon Bae,     RAND

August 3, 2020

Two strategic decisions hang heavy over the Department of Defense (DoD): 1) How does the DoD redesign the Joint Force to meet the challenges of future contingencies and wars? 2) How will the department pay for it? These questions are not new, but their importance cannot be understated. For years, all the services have been diligently pursuing potential answers, spurring a litany of emerging warfighting concepts and organizational restructuring. Examples abound from the Army's Multi-Domain Operations (PDF) and the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations to the establishment of Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability and Army's Future Command.

So, how could wargaming shape these decisions? The answer is simple: wargaming is already an integral part and should continue to be. As an incredibly adaptable analytical tool, wargaming can examine competing courses of action, explore the effects of emerging technologies, and assess operational concepts. This is reflected in the plethora of wargames examining the future force, both within the military and its federally funded research and development centers.

The role of wargaming in the ongoing transformation of the Marine Corps serves as a poignant example. In his 2019 Commandant's Planning Guidance, General David H. Berger, 38th Commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC), repeatedly emphasized the pivotal role of wargaming in force design, education, and training. The CMC argues that wargaming will not only inform future force design but could help educate and train future commanders. In the subsequent Force Design 2030 (PDF), the CMC again reinforced the utility of wargaming—ranging from concept refinement to the programming process. Moreover, Expeditionary Warrior, the Marine Corps' Title 10 wargame series, continues to support future concept development, including Future Maritime Operations and the Joint Operational Access Concept. The forthcoming state of the art wargaming center at Marine Corps Base Quantico reflects the service's embrace of wargaming, both as an educational and analytical tool.  ... "

Alexa Turns Six

Hard to imagine it, Voicebot.ai reports on the birthday and the future of voice assistance.    A big step forward, but what are the other steps we need?

Amazon Echo and Alexa Turn Six, Try to Prepare for Everything

By ERIC HAL SCHWARTZ 

Six years ago, Amazon introduced the world to the Amazon Echo smart speaker and Alexa voice assistant. The AI has become an almost a generic term for a voice assistant and performs tasks from locations far beyond the limits of that first cylinder and pleasant alto voice. In the last year, Amazon launched an entirely new generation of Alexa-enabled devices and expanded into new realms through partnerships with other companies. Alexa meanwhile has added a long list of new and updated features, along with plenty of third-party voice apps. ... "

Cyborg Cockroaches

Remain interested in small and very small robotic devices.    And cooperating swarms.   They don't need to be scarythough.

A Swarm of Cyborg Cockroaches That Lives in Your House

Japanese researchers say turning cockroaches into an army of insect cyborgs could be useful in a variety of ways   By Evan Ackerman

Continued Rise of Home Assistant Devices

 My array of devices and their use continues to rise, despite the less that 'Smartness' still in evidence.  

Transactions With Voice Assistants on Smart Home Devices Will Hit $164B in 2025: Report

 Eric Hal Schwartz    in Voicebot.ai

Smart home devices will carry out more than $164 billion worth of transactions in 2025, according to a new report from Juniper Research. That’s more than 630% growth in five years from the $22 billion expected this year, the result of more opportunity to use voice assistants to purchase items.

SEEING AND SPEAKING

The enormous spike in transactions carried out with voice assistants can be attributed to a few factors. More people owning smart displays will help boost how comfortable people are with using their voice to make purchases because they can actually see what they are going to buy and observe the process. The report suggests that reaching that number will need connections between smart speakers and smart displays in case the purchase begins as an audio search before the user decides to take a look at the visual and confirm the purchase. Another major driver to voice commerce at home will be smart TVs, for similar reasons. Juniper predicts that more than a fifth of the 2025 value, almost $33 billion, will flow through smart televisions. In comparison, less than 1% of transactions will happen via connected appliances. That’s not surprising as any such appliance like a refrigerator would need to have all of the features of a smart speaker or display to compete with a smart TV.   .... " 

Can AI Help Save Forests

Our own work with managing forests in Canada also address problems like forest fires.  While at the same time we wanted to maximize harvest and conservation.  Note the strong data based approach. 

How AI Can Help Save Forests

The Wall Street Journal   By Ted Alcorn

Scientists are developing artificial intelligence (AI)-driven methods to aid forest conservation by enabling a new level of real-time awareness. Foresters in California are hoping to prevent or mitigate future wildfires via a forest-clearing plan that relies largely on remotely sensed data and machine learning (ML). Meanwhile, the Global Forest Watch is integrating radar data to penetrate clouds that conceal tropical areas. To reduce false positives of deforestation, consumer-goods company Unilever hired Descartes Labs to apply ML techniques to better differentiate between vegetation of forests requiring protection, and palm plantations where deforestation is necessary. In the hope of helping to create a sustainable trade in carbon offsets, forestry data company SilviaTerra employs AI to process satellite imagery of various tree species and time periods, calculating size and species based on factors like when leaves start changing color in fall.

Podcast from Recorded Future on Trickbot

Been following the security implications.  Here a podcast by former security connections at Recorded Future on the topic: 

Trickbot is Down But Not Out    By Caitlin Mattingly

On today’s podcast episode we welcome back Recorded Future’s senior intelligence analyst Greg Lesnewich.

He shares his insights on what goes on behind the scenes with the Recorded Future’s Insikt Group   , and why he finds the work challenging and rewarding. Then, we discuss the latest on the Trickbot global botnet, how they operate, who they target, and the efforts by the intelligence community and private industry to take them down, or at the very least hinder their efforts.  ... "

Robots and ReStocking

Despite the recent news that Wal-Mart was backing out of this for now, here is a link to get an eBook from Braincorp that discusses the robotics approach ... 

How Robots Solve Retail’s Restocking Challenge

An Introduction to Autonomous Inventory Delivery

Get the Free eBook  (At link) 

In the face of increased consumer demand, maintaining adequate stock levels has proven to be a major ongoing challenge for retailers, particularly those in grocery. Moving inventory and goods from the stockroom out to the store shelves is a laborious and time-consuming process that puts additional strain on workers and can impact sales if not carried out in a timely manner. So how can retailers better manage this process in today's complex environment?

Download this new guide, "How Robots Solve Retail’s Restocking Challenge" today to learn how a new type of robotic application - autonomous inventory delivery - can help improve operational efficiency and increase productivity while easing the burden on employees.  ... " 

Printing Quasi Textiles

 Had not heard of this before ... had examined how 'smart' fabrics would need to be maintained.   Intriguing direction.   Quasi textiles.

Leveraging a 3D Printer 'Defect' to Create a Quasi-Textile

MIT News  By Becky Ham

A graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jack Forman, created a tulle-like textile by controlling a common defect in three-dimensional (3D) printers. DefeXtiles are based on an under-extruding process developed by Forman called "glob-stretch," in which globs of thermoplastic polymer are connected by fine strands, producing a flexible and stretchy textile very similar to a woven fabric. The new textile, created using a standard $250 3D printer, can be sewn, de-pleated, and heat-bonded. Said Forman, "This is exciting because there's a lot of opportunities with 3D printing fabric, but it's really hard for it to be easily disseminated, since a lot of it uses expensive machinery and special software or special commands that are generally specific to a printer."