Kozminski Techblog

One of other things Artificial Intelligence has laid its hands on is the way you brush your teeth – with the Connected Electric Toothbrush by Kolibree it got a lot smarter. Brushing habits of many people are rather not matching the ideal criteria provided by their dentists, hence this AI-powered device will be able to tell you where exactly you need to improve.

The Ara toothbrush by Kolibree is using 3D motion sensors (accelerometers, gyroscopes and even a magnetometer) to check which parts of your mouth are already clean and which were neglected. Using Bluetooth, it then sends the data to your smartphone app and even sends you weekly reports regarding your progress.

While the smart toothbrush itself is not very new to the market, The Ara by Kolibree is actually extremely family-friendly. To encourage those who are not that convinced of clean mouth benefits (that being kids), the company is currently putting a large focus on game development and transforming brushing teeth into a fun and entertaining event. While brushing their teeth, kids are also simultaneously playing a game, in which the Kolibree Smart Guide shows them the areas to brush in real-time in order to earn points, this way encouraging the youngest part of the society to this beautiful activity 🙂

Picture – Kolibree.com

The toothbrush retails for $130, and the 3 interchangeable Brush Heads for another $25.

One of the most progressive cities in the world – Dubai, has recently launched new software that is predicting crimes before they even happen. This AI technology is based on analysing patterns from police databases and attempts to spot when and where an event is likely to occur next, reports Dailymail.

In fact, machine learning techniques are already being used in some higher levels of policing, financial crimes – fraud detection, scanning social media for any possible appearance of terroristic or violent organisations, and so on.

The report published by Stanford University “Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030” states that the impact of AI on crime prediction and prevention will become significantly larger in the coming years. Current researchers are focused on figuring out the way to control crowds and monitor activity on large gatherings, which can get extremely dangerous, as recent events in the world are proving.

The technology launched in Dubai has been stated to provide a highly accurate analytics and is so far also relying on the knowledge and skills of experienced policemen. Since the technologies of machine learning make computers learn by themselves, the forecast for the nearest future is for systems to become more and more independent and for offices to rely on its estimations. Not to mention Facial Recognition technology, with which a system could easily spot a criminal and report to stay alert.

Picture – The Huffington Post

The major drawback is that this evolution is likely to put millions of jobs at risk, however, it might also create new kinds of jobs too. The AI is definitely a beneficial development for the society when accepted and used accordingly, and will definitely transform many industries, including crime prevention, in the coming decades. 

Picture – The New York Times

During the last decade, the market has been flooding with usual things that suddenly became Smart by using certain technologies, and are supposed to make your life easier. The most recent trend is developing smart products focused on your sleep, but there are still many sceptical questions about how efficient it is. Here are some of them:

Wearables – for instance, 2breathe bracelet for shy $180 that is tracking your breathing and playing you some lullabies with automatically turning-off, once it senses that you are off too. You get the full report from your sleep via its mobile application in the morning.

Smart beds – The Sleep Number 360 is sensing your moves and shifts and adjusting the mattresses temperature and positioning through the night. The bed can also adjust the mattress for 2 people independently, and they say the mattress can even sense when one partner is snoring and gently raise his side of the bed to make him quiet. The other mattress by Kryo is filled with water and allows you to regulate your temperature during sleep (estimated to improve deep sleep by just 20% though).

Smart pillows – Zeeq pillows can track your breathing, moves and play you music, and Sleepace is developing a small device that is sticking to your pillow and tracks your sleep cycles and wake-ups.

While all of these is impressive, experts say that currently, the technology is certainly ahead of the clinical world itself – tech companies created so many ways to keep track on all your body signals and movements, but the questions they raise are still left unanswered by clinicians. What are users supposed to do with all this data? Is it supposed to make them pay more attention to their sleep and rest longer? Doubtable.

Few suggestions brought up by Michael Breus, a psychologist who specializes in sleep disorders, is so the data that all those products generate is containing more personalized suggestions, e.g. advises on the best time to go to sleep, or take a nap, or wake up, or compare your data with other users and deliver feedback based on that. Tracking your sleep has to eventually become useful knowledge and be addressed. Until then, the benefit of all the smart products in sleep tech are limited and so far more entertaining than useful.

– Based on Mashable article

If you think you still know everything about Lego ‘cause you played it in the 90’s – you are mistaken.

Lego rocked this year on the CES 2017 event, by showcasing its new product – a robot-making toolkit for kids that are also interested in learning how to code. The kit comes with components for building five fantastic models: Vernie the Robot, the Guitar 4000, the Multi-Tool Rover 4 (M.T.R.4), Frankie the Cat, and the Autobuilder, delivered by Curbed. 

Designed for 7+, the kids will be building their robots with the help of a free app that will provide the instructions for creating an animal, a vehicle, and a robot of their own design. 

The fact that the robots can also be programmed is fulfilling dreams of probably every kid who wants his toys to be alive. Using the same app, kids are able to let their imagination go wild with the help of the programming language designed by Lego, that is replacing the usual lines of code with puzzle pieces, which only fit together in a certain order.

Lego “Boost” will be put on shelves mid this year and cost you $160. At least it’s good it didn’t get there before Christmas! 🙂

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