Here’s Everything That Went Down At Microsoft’s Windows 10 Event

It was a very Windows day, with Microsoft unveiling lots more about Windows 10, the next generation of its operating system, including how it will work across mobile, tablet, desktop and other platforms. The biggest surprise was probably the new HoloLens augmented reality headset Microsoft created, and the Windows Holographic software it built to support said gadget. But there was more, too, so read on for a summary of everything you need to know about the event.

1. Windows 10 Has 1.7 Million Beta Testers

Windows 10 has been available as a technical preview before today, and already Microsoft has signed up a sizeable testing contingent from the general public. The company revealed that over 1.7 million users are participating in the Insider program that provides access to early builds of Windows 10 ahead of its general release. A good number, but now surprising given there are likely over 1 billion Windows users worldwide.

2. Windows 10 Is A Free Update… For A Year

You get a Windows 10! And you, and you! Yes, Windows 10 will be a free update, for users running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 on PCs or notebooks, and for Windows Phone 8.1 users on mobile. But that offer’s only good for a year, so Microsoft isn’t totally killing the notion of a free update. Unless it’s only free for a year because after that comes Windows 11, which is also free for a year, and so on and so on.

3. Windows 10 Mobile Syncs Settings With Desktop, Integrates Skype For Calls And Messages

Phones and tablets get Windows 10, just like everything else Microsoft can put it on. On mobile, we got a pretty brief look at it, and in many ways it resembles Windows 8.1, with improved notifications (which sync with your desktop), better Settings menus, and UI refinements. The best thing about Windows 10 on mobile might be that it integrates Skype right into both the phone app and messages, like a Windows-friendly iMessage/FaceTime.

4. Windows 10 Mobile Gets Free Office Suite Apps

That’s right, Word, Excel and PowerPoint are all going to arrive on Windows Phone for smartphones and small tablets, which are optimized for touch. No longer will MS lag iOS and Android in mobile versions of its own productivity software!

5. Xbox App For Windows 10 Wants To Get Gamers More Social

Microsoft is trying to build a true, cross-service social network from Xbox on Windows 10 that spans services including Steam. It’s like Facebook, but for gaming achievements instead of baby pics!

6. Spartan Is A Brand New Browser For Windows 10, With Reading And PDF Markup Modes

Internet Explorer will have to share the browser stage in Windows 10 with Spartan, a new browser built from the ground up for speed, Cortana, collaboration and simplicity (Spartan, get it?).

7. Xbox One Games Will Stream To Windows 10 PCs

Streaming your gameplay to Windows 10 PCs and large tablets will be a real thing when the new OS launches, letting you play anywhere in your home from your Xbox One without wires, so long as they’re on the same network. This is basically like PS4 Remote Play, but more useful since it works with basically any Windows 10 PC.

8. Microsoft Made Windows Holographic, An Augmented Reality Extension Of Windows 10

It’s AR because it lets you see the real world with virtual objects laid overtop, but Microsoft clearly wants the ‘Hologram’ branding to stick in consumer minds. Want to hang out on Mars? Or just work on a virtual engine in your actual garage with your mechanic friend across the country? Windows Holographic can do that, provided you also have…

9. Microsoft HoloLens

MS is taking matters into its own hands with a headset to support Windows Holographic. The hardware was in good enough shape that Redmond offered journalists on hand at today’s event demos, and our own Alex Wilhelm came away mightily impressed. It has transparent lenses so you can see the world around you, but overlays a digital image that places virtual objects in your surroundings.

post from sitemap

Microsoft Is Building Software For The Future Where Interfaces Fade Away

Despite giving no information about release date, price, or technical specs, Microsoft surprised many tech bloggers today with the announcement of Windows Holographic and the HoloLens, an operating system and headset for augmented reality computing.

That is to say that it blends the world around you with digital objects and interfaces. Need to make some last-second modifications to a 3D model that’s going to be 3D-printed this afternoon? In a few years, Microsoft wants you to put on a HoloLens and interact directly with the model, seemingly resting on the empty space on your desk. The tool tray you use won’t just be a few columns of brush and cursor icons, but an actual rack of brushes sitting next to the model you’re working on.

While some have questioned whether or not the HoloLens is actually taking advantage of holograms to power its display, they’re kind of missing the point. Thanks to popular fiction like Star Wars and hologram-enabled stunts like having Tupac and Michael Jackson perform “live” posthumously, people “get” holograms: fancy projections that make it look like something is there without a display, smoke, or mirrors.

When you look through HoloLens, you’re not just going to see an overlay of notifications and command prompts. You’ll see your living room or office, but there will be a digital calendar floating where you traditionally would have had a real one or an 85-inch screen on the open patch of wall where the TV would have hung.

Instead of designing interfaces around anachronistic metaphors based on office desktops in the 1980s or within the constraints of a ~5-inch screen, HoloLens apps can be as literal as they need to be, from simple projections of something on your PC monitor to a reminders screen that takes up an entire wall so that you absolutely can’t miss it.

As far as most people are concerned, calling those interface elements “holograms” is the best way to get the point across without completely alienating them. Saying “Well actually, it’s augmented reality,” is pointless. “Augmented reality” is gibberish, technical jargon that’s about as accessible as calling a wrist watch part of the “Internet of Things.”

In the same way that Apple concocting the term “Retina” to quickly convey the advantages of HiDPI screens (“You can’t even see the pixels!”), “hologram” is just a consumer-friendly way of describing what makes the HoloLens so interesting.

With HoloLens, Microsoft and developers will have to sell consumers on applications that seemingly exist in the same 3D space we live in. It’s a huge change in paradigm to move from from flat/layered applications to interfaces with depth and contextual awareness. Microsoft needs to do everything it can to get developers and consumers on the same page in terms of expectations so that people don’t give up on HoloLens as just another face computer.

After all, it’s 2015 and many are only just realizing that you can in fact be productive on a device without a dedicated keyboard and pointing device because the desktop was the only viable computing environment for so long. People are going to freak out again when you take away screens and input devices completely. By filtering the concept of augmented reality down to something more understandable, Microsoft makes it more appealing to the mass audience needed to make a platform interesting to developers in the first place.

Microsoft doesn’t want to sell you a better Google Glass. They want to sell you Tony Stark’s setup:

post from sitemap

TC Droidcast Episode 34: HTC One M9 – More Of The Same?

This week we look at the rumoured new HTC One M9 (or whatever it’ll be called, HTC’s newest flagship) which we’ll get our first look at on March 1. These first spy shots seem to indicate it’ll be similar to last year’s M8, but is that good enough to make it one of the best Android phones of 2015? In other news, we take another look at the Amazon Fire Phone, six months after its launch, and end up wishing we hadn’t.

Related Articles

TC Droidcast Episode 33: Wherein We Fix Project Ara TC Droidcast Episode 32: Year In Review... Chickichuuu! TC Droidcast Episode 31: Pebble, ZenWatch, And Smartwatch 3

The Droidcast team of Darrell Etherington, Kyle Russell, and Greg Kumparak also wonder about the secret sauce that leads to wearable success, and whether HTC can muster some of that for its own rumored device. HTC is a little like that kid from grade school you always thought was going to be like a celebrity or software mogul when you grew up – but who ended up just getting a pretty good job at the top local employer instead.

As usually, if you have something you’d like us to discuss on the Droidcast, please email and let us know.

Subscribe on iTunes and check out past episodes right here on TechCrunch.

Download it directly here: http://traffic.libsyn.com/droidcast/droidcast-34.mp3

post from sitemap

Microsoft’s New Holographic Nerd Helmet Is Awesome

At an event held for the media at its corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft unveiled HoloLens, a face computer that blends holographs into your world using see-through lenses. And it is somewhat remarkable.

After the morning’s keynote wrapped, the company guided the accumulated technology press through a series of demos using incomplete hardware and software. The hardware we used was non-wireless, bulky, slightly uncomfortable, but functional. The system is not done, but should be in the market about the time Windows 10 hits the streets in its final form later this year.

In one demo, a room of tables and chairs became an interactive Minecraft experience where I could see towers resting on flat surfaces. I could also use a simple tool — using voice to change my selected weapon — to dig holes in a physical bench, digitally, and then push some holographic zombies into the vat of lava that was moldering several feet below the bench itself.

It looked something like this (image via Microsoft):

On the outside, of course, I was poking the air wearing something that probably looked like a failed Steampunk costume. In another demo, I was kicking around Mars, and the system was smart enough to not put the Martian environment over a PC that sat on a nearby desk. So, I interacted with the PC with a mouse, while standing on Mars.

I also had a session that involved a Skype call, during which my chat partner could see what I could see, and could “draw” onto my world, marking my environment with arrows and more. It was like having someone show up inside your head and help out. It was almost too intrusive.

Of course, demos are the substance of dreams yet realized. If Microsoft were merely showing off the headset without promising to release it later this year, it would be a less interesting product. But since the headsets will be sold, they are more than vaporware.

The company has plans to build software for HoloLens, but it will be, as with all things, up to third-party developers to build the killer apps that make the headset a must-have. Microsoft’s quest to reclaim its former status as the de facto computing platform provider continues.

It’s almost odd to consider, but Microsoft is now one of the most interesting hardware companies. It builds Xboxes, Surfaces, smartphones, huge touch displays and now a holographic nerd helmet that it seems to hope will create a new layer of computing in the world.

Price? Formal launch date? Partners? First killer app? All of those are critical unknowns, and Microsoft has a long road ahead. But what it has built to date is impressive, fun and challenging.

post from sitemap

This Is Microsoft’s Xbox App For Windows 10

Microsoft’s key takeaway for its Windows preview event today is that Windows 10 is everywhere – including Xbox. The gaming console’s inclusion in today’s announcements helped reinforce Redmond’s ambitious cross-device intentions.

Microsoft Xbox gaming lead Phil Spencer opened the company’s discussion of gaming by talking about how personal the experience is, and by highlighting Xbox Live’s 50 million members. He did so to lead into a discussion about how MS is making PC gaming more social and interactive in Windows 10.

That’s all part of the new Xbox app for Windows 10. This includes a collection of all games, played on all connected Microsoft Windows 10 devices, as well as well as Xbox. There’s also a friends list, message inbox and chat window (featuring both voice and text chat), and an activity feed for tracking achievements and activity. These are on any system that can run Windows 10.

The activity feed is an effort to turn Xbox into more of a social network than it has been, with game clip sharing in the same way that people will post videos and photos to FB and other destinations, Spencer said. The Xbox app also works with a range of Windows gaming options, including Steam, which means Microsoft is happy to work with players in ecosystems where they already have made considerable investments in service of more social gaming. A game DVR feature will make it possible to capture and share gaming moments throughout the OS.

“Bringing more power to Windows gaming is incredibly important to us,” Spencer added. That’s what’s behind DirectX 12, which increased game performance vs. DirectX 11 by up to 50 percent, while also cutting power consumption in half so that mobile games can look better while also being played longer. Unity has adopted DirectX 12, which means it’ll be available to a huge swath of developers out the gate.

Fable Legends got an on-stage demo, the upcoming sequel to the celebrated Xbox series. Developer Lionhead’s Lauren Carter showed it off at the event, playing on an Xbox One while Spencer joined in via the Xbox app on his Windows 10 PC. The whole point is that Microsoft is looking to make more games provide multiplayer across Windows 10, Xbox and various devices, all of which helps it turn Xbox into a real social network with maximum reach.

post from sitemap

Spark Announces A Jolly, Candy-Like Button For Your Wi-Fi Interactivity Needs, IFTTT Interactions

If you, like Stimpy, can’t stop yourself from pressing buttons due to Space Madness, Spark has something for you. A new product, called the Spark Button, is essentially just that: a button. What will happen when you press it? Maybe something good? Maybe something bad? I guess we’ll never know.

But what we will know is that this is essentially an interface device for the Spark interface, allowing you to change light colors, signal a web app, or even improve your doorbell.

“The Button is halfway between a DIY/Maker project and a consumer product. Anybody can buy it, plug it in, and start using it without any circuitry or writing code,” said CEO Zach Supalla. “But it’s also totally hackable; the circuit board’s exposed, and it’ll come with our new dev kit as the centerpiece. It’s a fun toy that provides the first step into building something more powerful.”

The button is up for pre-order now.

The Spark is essentially a mini web server and the Photon is the latest version of their development platform. The chip essentially allows you to build prototypes quickly and easily and connect them to the Internet with a minimum of fuss.

In related news, the company has teamed up with IFTTT to add simple programmable triggers to your Spark devices.

“We wanted to build an ‘Internet Button’ because we wanted to make it easier for people to make interactions between the web and real life,” said Supalla. “We built an integration with IFTTT and we thought an “Internet Button” would be the perfect example product where you can say ‘If the button is pressed then do something on the Internet.'”

The button has 11 addressable, color-changing LEDs, four small buttons on the back, and an accelerometer. It connects to Wi-Fi and can be programmed via USB like any standard Arduino device. Why do you need it? Although it’s a bit esoteric, it makes for a great test bed for hacking together time-tracking systems, notifiers, and robotics projects. It also lights up.

Now if you’ll excuse me I need to make an IFTTT script that turns off the Internet when I slam my head down on a button.

post from sitemap

Amazon’s New Kindle Textbook Creator Takes A Different Approach From iBooks Author

Amazon has a new tool for its Kindle Direct Publishing authors, via a new KDP EDU wing of the same aimed at educators and academic institutions. It’s called the Kindle Textbook Creator, and it lets authors prepare electronic textbooks for students, for publication across Fire tablets, Android devices, iPhones and iPads, Mac and PCs. It’s kind of like iBooks Author for Apple and iTunes U, but   it uses PDFs of existing texts as a starting point and offers over-the-top digital features for Kindle-based consumption.

Kindle Textbook Creator seems designed for speed, and for working with the legacy textbook publishing industry, as opposed to iBooks Author which is more designed to help educators build digital-native experiences from scratch. Books built with Amazon’s new tool offer multi-color highlighting for students, as well as built-in notebooks, flashcards for review, dictionaries, and of course multi-platform support, in addition to translating the PDF version of their document into something that works on any reader.

The standard economics of KDP apply with the new EDU publishing arm, meaning authors earn royalties ranging up to 70 percent depending on options, and keep control of the rights related to their content. KDP EDU titles are also eligible for Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, as well as marketing features including Amazon’s free book promotions.

The EDU Textbook Creator seems fairly simple in its current form, but Amazon says it will continue to add features as time goes on, so don’t be surprised if tools for educators get a lot more sophisticated eventually. For now, it’s a concession to the legacy educational publishing industry that also seems to want to encourage more self-publishing efforts by educational professionals and authors. Apple’s iBooks Author tool tries to convince educators to go digital-first, while Amazon’s says bring whatever you’ve already got to the table to help us expand our education market reach.

post from sitemap

NASA And Microsoft Using HoloLens To Make It Possible To Work Remotely… On Mars

Microsoft and NASA are teaming up to make remote working on the Red Planet a reality, using the newly announced HoloLens headset, and the Windows Holographic technology that it supports. The platform is called OnSight and is being developed out of NASA’s Pasadena-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It uses the Mars Curiosity rover as effectively a telepresence bot for scientists working out of the relative comforts of Earth’s atmosphere.

Data piped from Curiosity will allow the OnSight software to build a 3D simulation of its surroundings on Mars, which scientists will be able to check out first-hand thanks to HoloLens’ ability to project virtual environments onto physical surroundings. The scientists will then be able to examine what’s being worked on by Curiosity from a first-person perspective, and then plan future activities for the rover to complete, as well as see simulations of their likely results.

HoloLens and the holographic computing MS is using with the headset won’t just pipe a 3D recreation of the Martian landscape to scientists. It’ll also overlay the imagery with information, distances, readings and other sensor data and supplemental knowledge to help scientists experience Curiosity’s viewpoint in a way that lets them work within the simulation directly, rather than having to pop out to check some detail on a nearby terminal.

OnSight is part of JPL’s ongoing research into robot-controlled spacecraft and exploration equipment, meaning we could eventually see more robot missions to Mars before we send humans up there to check things out first-hand. Curiosity operations involving the OnSight tech are slated to kick off later this year, and HoloLens and Microsoft’s crazy AR innovations could be included in Mars 2020 rover missions, NASA says.

I literally just finished reading The Martian, so I can’t close without mentioning that this probably would’ve helped a lot with the rescue of Mark Watney, had HoloLens and OnSight existed in that fictional near future.

post from sitemap

Fly Or Die: The Jamstik+

We’re back after a long break and I bet you missed our mugs on TC’s Fly or Die. This week we present the Jamstik+, a surprisingly cool little musical instrument that immediately got Jordan a-humming and a-strumming.

You can take a closer look at the Jamstik+ here but, generally, you’re looking at a mini-guitar that is actually a MIDI keyboard. By playing this thing as you would any guitar you can get sounds heretofore unknown by axe-men and, more important, play drums, lead, rhythm, bass, and keyboards from one device. The Jamstik team has improved their product immensely and now it supports low-energy Bluetooth for ultra-low latency.

How does it play? Jordan loved it and I intend to start carrying it on trips. In short, this thing flew like an eagle.

post from sitemap

ChargePoint, BMW, And VW To Build East And West Coast EV Charging Network

It will soon be easier to drive an EV along both coasts in the U.S. Thanks to a new partnership with ChargePoint, BMW and VW, hundreds of charging stations will be placed strategically along the East and West Coast of America. This will create a network allowing drivers to travel between Portland and San Diego and Boston and Washington D.C.

ChargePoint already has a significant install base around the States with more than 20,000 chargers. But they’re scattered. ChargePoint focuses on selling the charging stations to businesses and municipalities. With this partnership, though, the company will install stations both between and within relevant metro areas. The stations will be at the max 50 miles away from each other.

The locations will house up to two 50 kW DC Fast chargers or 24 kW DC Combo Fast chargers.

These stations will recharge most EVs including models from BMW and VW. Tesla’s might need an adapter, though, but of course Tesla owners can also tap into Tesla’s own Supercharger network.

ChargePoint has so far been successful equipping the US with charging points. There are likely charging stations near every metro area around the country. Yet they’re placed randomly, leaving gaps that some EVs cannot cross. ChargePoint is taking a page from Tesla’s playbook here.

Tesla pulled off something of a coup with its Supercharger network. When the company announced its first charging station network, they didn’t announce plans to build it: the stations were already installed and ready to be used. Tesla then quickly rolled the network out country-wide, creating corridors for its cars to traverse. Now, some three years later, thanks to the Supercharger network, Tesla can brag that its vehicles no longer have a limited range. There’s a Supercharger everywhere. BMW and VW likely want the same marketing point.

Unlike Superchargers, these ChargePoint stations will not be free. Like other ChargePoint stations, users will need a subscription to the network or they can pay at the station per use.

post from sitemap

Tales Of CES: How Many Selfie Sticks Are Too Many?

CES is in full swing — the doors of the show officially opened this morning, tens of thousands of people took over the show floor, going from one stand to another. The Las Vegas Convention Center was as overwhelming as I expected, but one thing in particular struck me. CES is a trade show, it wasn’t designed to entertain the press. And in some way, selfie sticks are the star of the show today.

I spent most of my day walking around every single hall of the Convention Center, taking my time to introduce myself to companies, play with some products and talk with other attendees. But when I looked at people’s badges, I didn’t see a lot of journalists — most people had a buyer, exhibitor or industry affiliate badges (whatever “industry affiliate” means).

And this is key to understanding the original purpose of CES: people come here to talk with the rest of the consumer electronics industry. Companies find suppliers and clients at CES. Resellers shop around. It’s a great way to spot trends as well.

And selfie sticks stole the show today. Attendees filmed drones and crowds using them, while a few exhibitors were showcasing their selfie stick lineup in golf bags. Of course selfie sticks at CES quickly became a running joke on Twitter. Most people I follow find them depressing, I actually think they are funny.

But selfie sticks are just one commodity items among many others (USB cables, portable batteries and Bluetooth speakers…). These all are uninteresting to the press, but make sense in a trade show. It’s all about selling your stuff to other attendees, who might not be journalists.

And when it comes to selling techniques, everything goes. Companies choose to do bill showers like American Express, showcase weird singing robots like Toshiba, or let you play bowling. Panasonic even inexplicably displays a Tesla on its booth.

But my favorite thing of the show was definitely Creative’s booth. The company recently revived the Sound Blaster brand for a Bluetooth speaker. While I can’t tell you whether it’s a good speaker or not due to the hostile testing environment, the company had a salesman doing an antiquated teleshopping-style presentation.

As you can see on the feature image, Creative claims to provide the “Biggest Baddest Boldest Killer Audio.” I’m sure there is a bit of irony behind this marketing message, but I can tell you for sure that Creative and the audience were all taking this seriously.

Don’t get me wrong, I saw a lot of exciting stuff today as well, but I wasn’t prepared to feel like I was in a parallel universe where teleshopping shows are cool.

For this exact reason, it would be a mistake to dismiss selfie sticks as a stupid trend. They are the logical evolution of the tripod and the GoPro, and nobody complained about tripods and GoPros when they became popular. So let’s embrace the weird world of CES, at least for just one week.

Read my other posts in the Tales of CES series.

post from sitemap

LyteShot Wants To Build A Platform For Live-Action Games

Having instigated a NERF gun war at the last Disrupt SF Hackathon back in September, I understand how fun it is to run around shooting your friends with harmless foam darts in a big open setting. But anyone who’s participated in such antics knows that they come with some pretty annoying issues. Guns break for no obvious reason, foam darts go missing — or worse, end up everywhere — and after you’re done having fun, you’ve either littered or have to spend just as much time cleaning as you did playing.

CES Hardware Battlefield participant LyteShot is working on an alternate-reality gaming alternative to playing with traditional NERF guns. Its solution relies on wireless “guns” and sensors — known as the Lyter and LytePuck, respectively — that essentially act as more affordable laser-tag rigs.

In gameplay, the tech is simple: point the cartoonish gun at another player and click the trigger. If the person is wearing one of LyteShot’s sensors, their death/damage will be registered in the point system for whatever game everyone’s playing. The initial shot is fired via infrared, and the game is kept in sync between all players thanks to Bluetooth communication between the puck and each player’s phone.

LyteShot doesn’t see making laser tag more accessible as its endgame. Starting with the gun and puck as a base, the company hopes to build an open platform on which hobbyists and pro developers can build their own gadgets and games.

Using the startup’s SDK, one could make a simple heads-up display app (as the LyteShot team has already tested on the Epson Moverio smart glasses) that keeps track of points and objectives. You could also make a baton weapon that registers points when you land a hit. The only limitation is that you’ve got to make space for an Arduino board somewhere in your design (and, you know, make something that doesn’t hurt like hell when you hit someone with it).

Soon LyteShot plans to offer a marketplace where people can share their gadgets and code. If you’re the generous type, you’ll be able to provide schematics and code so people can 3D print these gadgets themselves, providing their own Arduino.

Those looking to make money will also be able to sell their gadgets fully assembled on the marketplace, though LyteShot hasn’t given details on what (if any) cut they’ll take. Hopefully the startup will also do some basic monitoring of their platform to keep dumb teenagers from going out with anything that resembles a real weapon too closely.

post from sitemap

Lenovo Brings Motorola Smartphones Back To China

Less than three months after completing its $2.91 billion acquisition of the phone manufacturer from Google, Lenovo announced today that it will bring back Motorola smartphones to China. Three devices—the Moto X, Moto X Pro, and Moto G with 4G LTE—will go on sale early this year.

Motorola stopped selling phones in China in 2013 while it was owned by Google, due in part to lagging sales as competition from companies including Samsung and Chinese smartphone makers increased.

While Motorola can now tap into the resources of Lenovo, one of China’s leading smartphone makers, it still faces significant challenges.

For one thing, Lenovo’s own sales growth began to stall in the last half of 2014. Motorola-branded devices (and other Lenovo products) all face fierce rivalry from companies like Xiaomi, which has grabbed market share from Lenovo, Samsung and other companies on its way to becoming the world’s third-largest smartphone maker by shipment volume.

post from sitemap

Robotbase Wants To Put An Intelligent Robot In Every House

If it’s up to Robotbase, you’ll soon be coming home and a robot will greet you at the door. While you were away, the Robotbase Personal Robot patrolled your home, made sure the temperature was lowered when you left, maybe locked the door after you were gone and, through its built-in camera, allowed you to check in on your dog, too. Robotbase is officially launching its Kickstarter campaign today with an appearance from of our CES Battlefield judges today.

As Robotbase CEO Duy Huynh told me, the company’s mission is to build a platform for an autonomous robot with plenty of sensors, advanced computer vision and a good dose of artificial intelligence built-in so it can’t just react to what you’re telling it to do, but also proactively alert you and handle tasks quietly in the background.

In its current form, the Robotbase is a 4-foot tall robot that sits on a wide base with a telescoping arm that holds its screen, camera and other sensors. Huynh likened it to a really smart smart-home hub that goes beyond the standard tasks of those devices because it can’t just aggregate data from those tools, but also move around your home.

What really sets Robotbase’s efforts apart, however, is what the team calls “talents.” These are basically apps you can install on the Gen X. Say you are having a party. The Personal Robot, with its built-in image recognition skills and camera, can become your party photographer.

Huynh also told me that the company is working on a “security guard” skill that will have the robot patrol your home and a “storyteller” talent for lazy parents. Using that skill, the robot can tell your kids a bedtime story while you are spending some quality time with your Netflix queue. Once the robot notices your child has fallen asleep, it can turn off the light and roll back to its base station to charge.

The company purposely gave the robot a rather bland name — the “Artificial Intelligence Personal Robot” — because it wants people to name the robot themselves in order to personalize the experience. Users will also be able to create the faces that will pop up on the screen.

The robot will feature an always-on listening mode, which Huynh hopes will make it feel more natural for people to use voice to interact with it. Using its natural language processing skills, the system currently allows for some basic back-and-forth conversations. There will also be a touch interface on the screen and the team is working on gesture control, too (though that isn’t quite ready yet).

As Huynh admitted, it’s not easy to build this combination of speech recognition, natural language processing and computer vision, but he also believes that his team can overcome most of them.

“These used to be really hard problems,” he said. “But with deep neural networks, this is now much easier.” He also sees this as a platform. The software can always be updated, after all.

The core of the robot is built around an Nvidia Tegra K1 chip that handles most of the computation — all of which happens on the unit and not in the cloud. It will include sensors to measure temperature, barometric pressure and CO2, as well as a smell sensor to alert you when it finds a potential gas leak.

The company hopes to eventually sell its robot for under $1,500 — and maybe even $1,000. The Kickstarter campaign starts at $995 (limited to the first 50 backers). It’ll likely go on sale by the end of 2015 and while Robotbase plans to sell directly to consumers, it is also exploring relationships with brick-and-mortar retailers.

Huynh has a background in manufacturing and ran a factory and global sourcing business with more than 400 employees in the past. Thanks to this experience, he has the contacts to source components directly, which should help keep the price low.

For now, the company is focusing on the consumer version of the Personal Robot, but the company has also seen some interest from business customers who want to test the robot in their stores, for example.

You can find Robotbase’s Kickstarter campaign here.

post from sitemap

Watch Hemingwrite Bring Mechanical Typing To The Cloud

The typewriter is basically relegated to septuagenarians and hipsters at this point, but the Hemingwrite aims to make it a little more broadly appealing with cloud-based document storage and syncing, as well as digital e-ink display that means you won’t have to mess around with corrective tape or go through reams of paper just to prepare a simple cover letter.

We covered Hemingwrite at the launch of its Kickstarter campaign, but the device has been picking up steam in terms of funds committed, and has raised $320,000, or about $70,000 more than it originally sought, with two weeks left to go in the campaign. We caught up with Hemingwrite founder Patrick Paul in Vegas at CES 2015, to talk about the device and the campaign, and to get a first-hand look at a fully functional prototype of Hemingwrite in action.

In person, the Hemingwrite is impressive, with a heft reminiscent of the portable typewriters of yesteryear, and a screen that provides highly legible text in a distraction-free minimalistic interface. The physical switches that offer navigation provide a clever way to get at the features Hemingwrite provides without adding complication or getting users too turned around. There are still some question marks around final design elements, as the model we looked at doesn’t yet have a dedicated print button, for instance, but it works as advertised and definitely has a striking, retro-chic industrial design.

Paul says they’re on track to meet their shipping targets, so check out the Kickstarter campaign if you’re still interested in picking one up.

post from sitemap

Nvidia’s Automotive Ambitions Include Big Brains In The Car And In The Cloud

Nvidia’s focus this year on CES is on the Tegra X1 mobile chipset, a brand new SoC that offers desktop-like computing performance for a range of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, but extending also to automobiles. Already, Nvidia has a strong presence in the car, powering many of the in-car infotainment systems on the market from most of the major auto manufacturers. The X1 offers a chance for Nvidia to expand its car presence even further, and to not only vastly improve infotainment, but to make our cars smarter and more automated than ever.

Nvidia’s Director of Automotive Danny Shapiro took us through his company’s automotive ambitions with the Tegra X1, explaining how not only will the processor allow car-makers to build touch-based interfaces that control every aspect of a car’s internal environment, but how a reference system they’re shipping will pair two X1s for massive local processing power, letting a car become much smarter in combination with sensors and cameras used through the car’s construction to provide input about the vehicle’s surroundings.

These, combine with the local processing power, as well as cloud-based data analysis that can also feed in knowledge gathered from other users vehicles, mean that cars powered by Nvidia intelligence will be able to grow and learn over time, getting smarter, and better able to determine what exactly it’s seeing, how things will behave, and how to respond to specific situations.

Nvidia’s work in the car is really only starting out when it comes to automated features and machine learning, but X1-based systems will start to hit the streets in the all-new Renovo Supercar roadster shipping soon with a price tag north of $500,000. Smart cars may be relatively early in their development, but with the X1, Nvidia puts a lot more brain in the cockpit, to better match the muscle under the hood.

post from sitemap