Kozminski Techblog

About the one percent of the world population has autism spectrum disorder. Life is very hard for children with autism and according to the Autism Society in the United States, the U.S. cost of autism over the lifespan is about $2.4 million for a person with an intellectual disability, or $1.4 million for a person without intellectual disability. It costs more than $8,600 extra per year to educate a student with autism.

Parents of the autistic children have problem to find proper education for them and it is very costly and incapable in most of the world. To contribute a solution to this huge problem, a new startup in Kansas City, United States developed a new smart toy called as Leka for the autistic children to socialize.

Leka is a lot more than a cute for a smart toy. It is interactive and has multi-sensory device. It is designed as a buddy specially made for autistic children. This toy encourages children to create autonomy via playing with it.

It looks like a ball and it plays music and sound. It may speak, light up and vibrate to engage children in multi-sensory activities. This toy is customizable so they can adjust it according to child`s comfort and needs.

I believe that Children with children with developmental disorders needs those kind educational mediums for their education and it is a good tool for a start.

References:

1. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/leka-an-exceptional-toy-for-exceptional-children-autism–2#/
2. http://www.autism-society.org/what-is/facts-and-statistics/
3. http://mashable.com/2016/12/18/social-good-innovations-2016/#5fy4KuQXCmqU

At CES yesterday Alarm.com revealed that it is developing a smart home security drone alongside its other IoT devices and software.

The subscription-based home security provider is partnering with Qualcomm to develop camera-equipped home security drones that can automatically investigate unexpected noises and activity.

The idea is that if you hear something go bump in the night, you can just grab your smartphone and watch a live video stream of what’s happening because your drone has automatically gone to check things out.

Lots of companies offer drones or drone-based services that can monitor the perimeter of a home or commercial site from on high. But most aren’t building them to fly indoors.

Alarm.com is developing a system that enables drones to fly wherever unusual people or activities are detected, inside or outdoors, according to Chief Product Officer Dan Kerzner.

The company has begun development of both software and hardware, specifically a quadcopter, using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Flight platform. But it hasn’t yet finalized a name for its product.
Rather than constantly patrolling a home, the Alarm.com drones will only respond and fly when another system is triggered, for example a motion sensor that’s attached to the lights.

Using some data from other smart home devices, the drones will know where to go investigate and record or live stream a video to a user’s mobile phone. When they fly, they will use cameras and other on-board sensors to see around a room and avoid collisions.

Kerzner declined to get into great detail about each drone component, as the product is only in its fledgling design stages. But he emphasized that using Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight will give the drones the ability to do indoor and outdoor navigation from the start.
Alarm.com is targeting a launch for their drone service at the end of 2017.

At CES, the company also officially launched something it quietly released a few months ago, called the Insights Engine.

Insights Engine is software that enables smart home devices of any kind, including drones in the future, to automatically learn what’s normal in and around a home or work site, and send alerts to users when there’s an intrusion or weird activity, with no manual rule writing required.

Alarm.com is building drones to monitor your home inside and out

http://www.alarm.com/about/press/PressGeneric.aspx?cmid=410

https://www.cnet.com/news/at-ces-flying-drones-are-alarm-com-home-security-moonshot-ces-2017/

The founder and boss of Facebook set himself the target for 2016 to design a virtual butler to perform certain domestic tasks. He has just introduced Jarvis, an AI driven by voice and via the Facebook Messenger application which knows, among other things, to recognize people ringing the door, choose music or manage lighting.

At the beginning of 2016, the young boss announced his intention to design a virtual assistant to help him in his domestic tasks, inspired by Jarvis, the artificial intelligence (AI) that assists Tony Stark, alias Iron Man, in the eponymous saga.

Jarvis is a kind of virtual butler with which the Zuckerberg family can interact from a smartphone, to voice or by written exchange via the Facebook Messenger application. The AI ​​is connected to a number of home automation systems to control lighting in every room, room temperature, music. Jarvis can also feed the dog from home by operating a food dispenser, opening the door to friends he has previously identified, or toasting toast.

To create this virtual assistant, Mark Zuckerberg used several artificial intelligence technologies to process natural language queries, identify a voice and recognize a face. In the end, the capabilities of this Jarvis are nothing new. Most of the features described already exist through various home automation products, connected speakers such as Amazon Echo and mobile applications.

What’s next ?

What is interesting is the synthesis that Mark Zuckerberg has managed to create between different technologies and products to build a versatile AI embryo that fits in quite seamlessly into everyday life. The other important aspect of this experience is the findings of the young boss of Facebook. First, an AI must understand the context in order to know, for example, which member of the family speaks to him, in order to adjust his interaction taking into account preferences but also in which room the person who speaks , So as to execute the command in the right place.

This command of the context brings another advantage which is to make the AI ​​capable of handling open requests. Thus, Mark Zuckerberg explains that he has reached a point where he can ask Jarvis to put music to him without further precision. The program will then plot in the history of its application Spotify to propose a title suitable to him. Jarvis Dad explains how he alternates positive and negative feedback to advance his virtual creature so that it more effectively seizes his expectations.

An important point raised by Mark Zuckerberg, and so far little talked about, is the interest of maintaining a permanent link with his AI by striking a fair balance between verbal and written exchange. At work, with friends or in a public place, it is better to dialogue in writing with his virtual assistant rather than talking to him on the phone. “This suggests that future AI-based products will not be able to settle for voice and will also need a private messaging interface,” said Jarvis’ creator.

Zuckerberg intends to further develop his AI, in particular by teaching him to acquire new skills independently. Mark Zuckerberg says he plans to publish the source code for his program, but that it is currently too specifically designed for his home and his computer and home automation installation. But it would not be surprising that some of the ideas implemented are found one day in a virtual assistant Facebook …

Sources:

https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10102620559534481

http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/20/14028744/mark-zuckerberg-jarvis-home-ai-video-watch

http://www.futura-sciences.com/tech/actualites/intelligence-artificielle-mark-zuckerberg-devoile-jarvis-son-ia-personnelle-65631/

Snapchat is a mobile app that allows users to send pictures and videos that self-delete a few seconds after being opened. There is also the option to send these pictures and videos to your “Snap Story” in which case the snaps are accessible by anyone on your friends list for 24 hours. Since it’s launch in 2011 it has become increasingly popular.

Since Snapchat is so popular, companies have been adding accounts and using the app to promote their brand. Here are 4 ways that Snapchat can be used to promote e-commerce stores:

1.Creating excitement around new products

Posting Snaps to promote new products, or to build excitement about the release of new products is a good way to get started. The best company doing this is Taco Bell. Even though they are not an e-commerce store, they are, in my opinion, the best in Snapchat marketing. They use Snapchat to create authentic and less intrusive campaigns to reach their target audience. This technique can be applied to e-commerce sites as well.

2. Distribute discounts and promo codes

Everyone loves a good discount. Some companies are encouraging their users to share snap stories of them interacting with the brand and in exchange they receive discounts from 10-100% off their next purchase. With e-commerce stores you can ask your users to upload screenshots of their snaps. Or they will have a promo code posted in their Snap Story, and users can use it at during check out on the e-commerce site.

3. Invite users to interact

There are different ways to get your users to interact. The first is to post a series of Snap Stories and create a game. For example, encourage users who watch Snap stories to solve clues to get discounts or other prizes. This can be a bit harder for an e-commerce store to do, as their is no physical store to do this in. However, if your social media team is creative, it can surely be done.

Another way to get your users to interact is to have social media  influencers post about your company on their social media, and lead them to the your Snapchat. Or if the influencers use their Snapchat to promote your brand, with perhaps a discount code, it will also lead new users to your site.

The main takeaway with either are incentives. Users need a reason to get involved. There are some who are brand loyal and don’t need incentives. But these are few and far between depending on the company.

4. Show your team

People love to see what’s going on behind the scenes at their favorite companies. It is a good idea to introduce your team and show the followers what they are doing. You can have different people “hosting” the Snaps for a day or week, etc. Or you can have one dedicated person posting the Snaps, but they go around the office and introduce different members of the team and let the users get to know what’s going on. This helps users feel more connected to the company, and like they are a part of the process in some way. This is useful for e-commerce stores because customers don’t have the opportunity to meet employees, or build a connection in a regular retail store. 

Clean drinking water is scarce in many parts of the world – especially in hot areas. According to the WHO 780 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water, with 3.4 million deaths related to it.  Though in many dry regions in terms of precipitation, humidity is often particularly high. For these regions, the Israeli start-up Water-Gen has developed a device that draws water from the air. A power connection is required but the device is arguably more energy efficient than previous models because it uses already cooled air to reduce the temperature of incoming air. Thus far the company has worked with the military of various countries, but now the civilian population is to benefit.

The apparatus called GENius condenses humid air on a cool core, filled with artificial leaves of plastic. It seems like an easy thing to do because we see it happening every day in summer with air condition but the tricky thing is to do it efficiently. Approximately 300 watt hours of electrical energy per liter of water produced are required. Water-Gen also uses the same process in dehumidifiers and tumble dryers.

GENius is supplied in several sizes – for schools, hospitals, villages or only for one family. It is still being tested in cities such as Mumbai and Mexico City before the launch in late 2017.

Hello Dear Readers

Welcome in 2017. In that post I would like to present You the last news, which came from Norwegia. Some regions of that state decided definitely resign from traditional  FM radio system. January 11 th such areas like Nordland and later the others southern parts will introduce, as the first around the world, only digital radio transmission. According the the specialists after that changes almost 8 million of equipment will become out of usage. As surveys showed the majority of Norwegian society are already using that kind of signal’s  transmission that is why they are pretty satisfied from Government’s decision.

How You see introducing this of requirement into Your country? It will be extremely interesting to get Your point of view.

From my personal opinion, we could observed during last time, how long was the process of changing traditional television broadcast in Poland into digital one, so I can guess that in case of radio it could be similar, because it is connect with extra costs.

Thank You for Your time.

Magda.