CES tech show in Las Vegas dominated by VR and self-drive cars

Alongside the quirkier inventions on display at this year's CES in Las Vegas is technology that will change how we live our lives.

The event, which used to be known as the Consumer Electronics Show, is dominated this year by virtual and augmented reality, robotics and smart home management systems.

It is also a major showcase for the latest in self-driving and connected cars.

Major motor manufacturers are turning to tech giants to merge the two worlds where people spend most time.

Image Caption: The show is celebrating its 50th anniversary

Tim Stevens, editor-in-chief of tech review site CNET's Roadshow, said: "We're seeing partnerships between companies like Ford and Amazon, and Hyundai made an announcement with Google, so you can control your smart home from your car and your car from your smart home.

"It is bringing everything together and creating this concept of a smart agent where all of your information is available all the time regardless of whether you're in your car or at your home or at your office."

Voice-controlled home hubs, many of them with cute robotic looks, are now flooding the market to power the ubiquitous "internet of things".

Image Caption: Faraday Future's FF 91 prototype electric crossover vehicle

Electronics giant LG unveiled its version at the show. 

Vice-president Dave VanderWaal told Sky News: "The acceptance of voice recognition has grown tenfold in the last two years and so our home robot will be a way that a consumer can talk to the rest of the appliances in an easy and quick way."

Home hubs, including the much talked-about "Olly," are learning to evolve with users' preferences every days. This artificial intelligence is appearing in cars as well.

Smart, connected appliances are everywhere. One called FridgeCam even alerts owners to food about to pass its expiry date.

Few products at CES have gained headlines like the vibrating connected jeans. The creation of French company Spinali Designs has taken the concept of "wearables" to new tight-fitting levels.

The smart hairbrush from Kerastase is fitted with an accelerometer, gyroscope and microphone to provide "insights into manageability, frizz ones, dryness, split ends and breakage".

Gary Shapiro, the head of the Consumer Technology Association, says CES highlights to the incoming US president Donald Trump that technology keeps people safe, drives the economy and improves the way people live,

The show is celebrating its 50th anniversary - the first show in New York in 1967 attracted 17,000 people. 

Around 200,000 are expected at the show this week, many of them buyers for major retailers who will will ultimately sell us these gadgets.

China orders Apple to remove New York Times from app store

The newspaper has attacked the decision, calling it an "attempt to prevent readers in China from accessing independent news coverage".

Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu said: "For some time now the New York Times app has not been permitted to display content to most users in China, and we have been informed that the app is in violation of local regulations.

"As a result, the app must be taken down off the China App Store." 

Image Caption: The New York Times app is no longer available in China

Ms Wu added that when the situation changes, Apple will offer the app again for download in China. 

China has blocked access to the New York Times' website since 2012, after it ran a story claiming that former Premier Wen Jiabao's family controlled assets worth $2.7 billion.

The paper has asked Apple to reconsider its decision to withdraw the app.

New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said: "The request by the Chinese authorities to remove our apps is part of their wider attempt to prevent readers in China from accessing independent news coverage by The New York Times of that country."

Western media struggle to get past the strict censorship rules imposed by China's communist authorities.

Apple has removed The New York Times's apps from its app store in China after a request from authorities https://t.co/n3ASvflzHf

— The New York Times (@nytimes) 5 January 2017

It removes online content it considers politically sensitive, and has blocked Western websites and the services of Internet giants including Facebook, Twitter and Google.

China, the world's number two economy, is Apple's second-biggest market, and many of its products are manufactured there.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he was "not really aware" of the removal of the New York Times app.

"What I can tell you is that the Chinese government always encourages and supports the development of the internet," he said.

"But the development of the internet in China must comply with Chinese rules and regulations. This is a principle."

CES 2017: What new tech can we look forward to?

Social media terms and conditions 'incomprehensible' to children

As she publishes a year-long study into children and the internet, Anne Longfield said youngsters were left to "fend for themselves in the digital world".

She said government should teach children "digital citizenship" from the age of four as part of the curriculum, and that children should have a digital ombudsman to help them remove content from social media companies. 

Ms Longfield told Sky News: "The internet is an extraordinary good. But it's developed very fast and it's developed in a very disorganised way.

"It wasn't developed for children, although children are some of its biggest users."

Image Caption: Schoolchildren try reading the terms and conditions of popular social media sites

Children are spending more time than ever online. According to OFCOM, three and four-year-olds now spend eight hours and 18 minutes a week online, 12 to 15-year-olds spend more than 20 hours and 70% of them have a social media profile.

Sky News asked five pupils at Magna Carta School in Surrey about the terms and conditions of social media companies like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp.

None of them had ever read the terms and conditions to a social network.

When encouraged to by Sky News, they were surprised at what they had already agreed to.  

Shaniya Neta, who is 15, said: "It's kind of cheating you. It's almost lying in a way, because it's hiding it so you don't know you're signing up to."

Eleanor Smith, 14, told Sky News: "They should write the terms and conditions to suit the people using it. Like Snapchat - it's targeted towards a younger generation.

"But because it's so hidden what they're actually saying, you just press accept."

All the pupils wanted the terms of services to be made clearer, but said they would probably still use social media. 

Sam Hartshom, 14, told Sky News: "I still think it's safe enough, I think you can just about trust these companies enough, so long as you use them correctly and not expose yourself too much, you should be fine."

In 2018, a new EU law, the General Data Protection Regulation, will force technology companies to spell out how they use people's data much more clearly.

The UK government has said it will implement the regulation, regardless of Brexit.

Pam Cowburn, communications director for the Open Rights Group, told Sky News: "Generally we're not aware of the levels of processing, whether information can be shared and sold on to advertisers, information may be stripped of some personal information and passed on without our knowing."

A Government spokesperson said: "The internet has given children and young people fantastic opportunities, but protecting them from risks they might face online or on their phones is vital.

"The UK is a world leader in internet safety, but there is more to do, and we will carefully consider this report as part of our ongoing work to make the internet a safer place for children."

Michelle Napchan, Instagram head of policy for EMEA, said: "Instagram began as a mobile app, so we have always prioritised giving people easy to understand, clear information about our safety and privacy policies, which can be accessed right from their phones.

"We provide multiple ways for our community to find the information and resources they need. We recognise in many cases, when people need help, they want it when they're using the app.

"That is why we go beyond our terms and guidelines to officer in-app safety and privacy help - from reporting, to industry-leading comment tools and self-help resources."

App aims to help you save a terror victim

Norway warned plan to switch off FM radio will 'cut off millions'

Critics have warned it is both risky and unpopular, not least because an estimated two million cars on Norwegian roads are not equipped with DAB receivers.

There are also fears that elderly and vulnerable people, often cut off by fjords and mountains, may be left unable to receive emergency warnings - traditionally broadcast on FM.

A poll by a national newspaper in December found that 66% of Norwegians were opposed to the switchover, and only 17% were in favour.

The change is being pushed through regardless, and the northern city of Bodoe will be first to go DAB-only on Wednesday.

Image Caption: Critics want the government to change its tune as digital radio adapters are expensive

Norway's parliament voted in favour of switching off FM radio after hearing it would lead to a greater choice of radio stations, as well as clearer sound.

But Ib Thomsen, an MP from the Progress Party, said: "We are simply not ready for this yet.

"There are two million cars on Norwegian roads that don't have DAB receivers, and millions of radios in Norwegian homes will stop working when the FM network is switched off. So there is definitely a safety concern."

Ole Joergen, head of Digital Radio Norway, has admitted that cars will be the "biggest challenge" because a good digital adapter for an FM car radio costs about 1,500 Norwegian crowns (£142).

Other countries will be watching with great interest, with Switzerland planning to retire its FM network in 2020.

The UK government says it will consider a switchover once 50% of listeners are using a digital radio - a milestone which analysts say could be reached by the end of this year.

Samsung profits to rise by '50%' despite Note 7 failure

Its forecast for the final quarter of 2016 showed that group operating profits would come in 50% up on the same period in 2015, at around $7.8bn (£6.3bn).

While it did not give a net profit figure - one that would highlight the impact of additional costs on the business - or a breakdown by company division, the operating profit figure was its highest for three years. 

Analysts said Samsung's semiconductor division was likely to have driven the performance - cashing in on strong demand and a tight supply for microchips.

They believed it would have contributed more than half of Samsung's quarterly operating earnings. The full figures are released later this month.

Operating profit for the South Korean firm's smartphone division fell 98% in the third quarter alone as the Note 7 fiasco took hold. It has since warned of extra costs topping $2bn.

Samsung first recalled the devices in early September after some were found to overheat and even catch fire.     

Image Caption: Samsung says it will share details of why the Note 7 failed

The company had to recall the handset again just weeks later before finally discontinuing it when owners of replacement phones also reported faults.              

Samsung had blamed problems, which led to the first recall, on batteries provided by a particular supplier and assured customers it was using a different supplier for its replacement phones.

:: Timeline of Galaxy Note 7 fire crisis

The large-screen device was on the market for less than two months and there was further embarrassment just ahead when it was forced to recall millions of washing machines.  

The company has promised to share "very soon" the findings of its investigation into the phone's failure as part of its efforts to restore lost trust.

Those have been hampered by an investigation linking Samsung to the corruption scandal that forced the impeachment of the country's president, Park Geun-hye, a month ago.

Samsung postponed its annual personnel reshuffle, usually announced in December, due to the inquiry.

Here is Faraday Future’s first production car, the FF 91

At a very big event in Las Vegas ahead of CES, Faraday Future showed off the FF 91 — its first production car — and show off a few of its features.

Faraday Future has been in the news a lot lately, but not necessarily for good reasons. In November, the company’s factory construction was paused and putting its targeted ship date at risk among a host of other issues. Faraday Future has thus far been very flashy, but has yet to get a product in the hands of consumers — and it needs to get there. But, at least part of the way is finally showing a production car, which Faraday Future tried to do with bravado at the event.

There were two big parts of the demonstration (thus far — we’re live-blogging it here): the performance of the car and its range. Throughout both parts of the presentation Faraday pitted the car against Tesla’s Model S and Model X. To be fair, those cars are essentially benchmarks for the electric car industry. And Tesla’s troubles getting enough cars on the road are evidence enough that it’s a very, very hard industry.

It also showed off some parts of its autonomous driving technology by showing a video of the car finding a parking spot and parking itself. Owners can send the car off to park itself and summon it through the smartphone application, and the car packs 30 sensors including cameras and Radar, Faraday Future director of self-driving Hong Bae said.

According to Faraday Future, the car is able to hit 60 mph in 2.39 seconds — which, if accurate, would narrowly beat out the 2.4 seconds it takes a Tesla Model S to hit 60 mph. It showed a video of the car beating the Model S in a race, and while the company had each car hit full acceleration on stage, they did not go head-to-head. So we’ll basically have to go by the video for now, until we actually see the cars in person race each other in an independent setting.

Car fast pic.twitter.com/xg4GJSqxYp

— Matthew Lynley (@mattlynley) January 4, 2017

The FF 91 also has a range, the company says, of 378 miles (EPA adjusted). The Model S has a range of 315 miles (also EPA adjusted), and the car goes further at a constant 55 miles per hour. That’s enough to get from Silicon Valley (launch point not specified) to Los Angeles “with miles to spare,” VP of propulsion engineering Peter Savagian said on stage.

Beyond that, the car has a few extra flourishes like a dual antennae that allows a wifi hotspot, facial recognition that allows for keyless entry and 151 cubic feet of space internally.

To get their hands on the car, users have to register and put down a $5,000 deposit. And it will ship in 2018, the company says. Whether it actually works will, of course, be a different story. On stage, the company tried to activate part of its self-driving parking technology, and it didn’t operate. To re-iterate, Faraday Future really needs this car to work beyond just a very big flashy event at CES.

Before we close, here are a few choice quotes from the event:

Faraday SVP of engineering Nick Sampson

“We’re gonna show the first of a new species.”

“Tomorrow is too important for us, and for humanity. We have to flip the automotive industry on its head… independent of fossil fuels.”

“We’re ready to take that final decisive charge into the future… Faraday Future intends to lead that charge.”

“There are companies that have shown great electric vehicles… but while these companies inspire us what they are doing is a slight progression of where we’ve been before.”

Director of self-driving Hong Bae

“A car that adapts to you, a car that can drive itself, a car that is smartest ever.”

“This intelligent entity is also a caring entity. It looks out for you, it protects you… You will grow to trust it.”

Anyway, the event’s all wrapped up so be sure to check out our live blog for a recap of the whole presentation. Also, Elon Musk has yet to tweet about the announcement or presentation. We’re keeping a close eye on that.

Home robot Kuri is like an Amazon Echo designed by Pixar

Domestic robots are sort of here, with self-driving and speakers that control your smart home, but Mayfield Robotics’ Kuri could be the first real home robot, combining mobility and true interaction with approachable, friendly design.

Mayfield Robotics is a startup fully owned and funded by Bosch, with a team of co-founders that have extensive experience in the field of robotics, but also in interaction design and machine learning. Their first product is Kuri, an intelligent home robot making its official debut at CES this year, with pre-orders beginning in the U.S. and a target ship date of sometime during the holidays in 2017.

Basics of a buddy bot

Kuri responds to voice input, and in this way is similar to other devices like Google Home or Amazon Echo. There’s a four-microphone array built into its compact, vaguely conical body so that it can hear you no matter where you are in the room, and it has a speaker built-in, too. But Kuri doesn’t respond with words; instead, it uses sounds, lights and its expressive eyes to communicate responses back to a user – all of which is a key part of its design.

The robot also has a built-in HD camera tucked behind one eye, and a range of sensors to stop it falling down stairs or bumping into furniture. it moves on a three wheels that help it rotate in any direction, and move from room to room with easy as it follows you around the house or goes where you tell it. There’s a processor on board to handle tasks like voice and image recognition processing locally, and it’s programmable through easy tools like IFTTT to expand its feature set.

The diminutive robot is only under two feet tall, and about a foot wide with a total weight of 14 lbs. Both iOS and Android __apps are available to help control and interact with Kuri when you’re not using him (Mayfield genders the robot male in press materials and conversation) and it also seeks out its charging pad when its battery needs topping up.

Echo evolved

It’s tempting to think of Kuri as a rolling Echo with the ability to blink, but the robot is much more than that. Its designed to be a companion first, and an assistant second, and that meant a design process that was far different from what Amazon undertook with its smart speaker. Kuri’s movement design was led by a longtime Pixar animator, in fact, which Mayfield believes is key to making it something that people will not only be comfortable using, but that will want to interact with regularly.

Each inclination of Kuri’s head, each blink of its eye, its body shape and its pacing and locomotion design were all carefully considered, with the thought in mind of building something that was not necessarily optimally efficient or functional, but that was approachable, calming and inviting. Kuri needed to inspire trust in its users, and so the design process involved eliminating any motion, sound or type of movement that would potentially unnerve its users.

The Pixar DNA is apparent in Kuri’s finished product. The robot looks like something that’s leapt out of Wall-E, and the end result is a robot you want to befriend. I find myself thanking Alexa absent-mindedly when using my Echo, but I’d never consider Amazon’s virtual assistant a companion, per se; with Kuri, I find myself already coveting its affection even without owning one.

A robot that stands alone

Kuri is also different from things like Home or Echo because it’s designed to be its own robot; that is, at launch at least, it won’t have a long list of third-party integrations. But it will be able to control things via IFTTT; to let you check in on your house and its various rooms while you’re away using its HD camera; to read to your kid before bed; and to play games and podcasts as it tails you throughout the day.

The team at Mayfield Robotics wanted very much to create a satisfying, full experience from the moment you unpack Kuri, and so the focus was not on opening up integrations from day one, but instead on building something you’ll feel has value all on its own. It’s a good strategy, and one that will hopefully help Kuri have more broad appeal at launch, since it doesn’t require connecting a whole host of third-party services to become truly functional.

Baby steps for domestic robotics

We’ve long anticipated a day when we welcome robots into our homes, as caregivers, assistants and service companions. Kuri is not the Jetsons’ Rosie, or R2D2, but it is a step in that direction, and one that focuses on the big elements still needed for getting us to that future – interaction design. Robots being truly welcomed in the home will need to arrive first at a place where we see them as comfortable presences; no one’s looking to share their domestic space with factory floor production robots, for instance.

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Kuri’s lineage in the entertainment realm is a smart starting point for a domestic bot, since it plays on our familiarity and affection for robots we’ve seen portrayed in film in television, including Wall-E, Rosie and R2D2. And if we’re ever going to elevate robots in the home beyond the level of automated appliances, that’s a necessary step toward greater adoption.

Mayfield Robotics is asking pre-order customers to put down a $100 deposit now for Kuri reservations, with the balance of its $699 asking price due at shipment. It’ll still be almost a year before we see if its focus on personality is truly the right approach for broad acceptance, but from what I’ve seen, Mayfield is off to a very promising start.

Toymakers are the early adopters pushing AR into the mainstream

Amir-Esmaeil Bozorgzadeh Crunch Network Contributor

Amir-Esmaeil Bozorgzadeh is working on Virtuleap, a VR startup in the edtech space, and is a co-founder at Gameguise, a Dubai-based publisher of online games in the Middle East and a consultancy for global game developers and publishers.

More posts by this contributor:

• Iran has banned Clash of Clans for promoting violence and tribal conflict
• Line’s beauty and fashion portal rolls out its Persian carpet

How to join the network

In the race to greater consumer adoption, augmented reality is emerging as the early leader, thanks to its adoption by a key consumer market.

The technology has always been a wonder, drawing its strength from its capacity to make just about any subject come to life, popping out of the real ground beneath our feet and conjuring up digital apparitions that serve as extensions of our own imagination onto the physical world around us.

That ability to create wonder in the everyday, without total immersion, also provides a clue for why AR adoption has been faster (aside from technical limitations that still bedevil VR). One indicator of how the market is apparently more comfortable with AR than it is with its immersive sibling, VR, is that one of its earliest adopters are toymakers. In fact, the Toy Industry Association named augmented reality and related technologies the top toy trend for 2016.

“Think of the drama, dance, fine art and sculpture opportunities that AR brings. Kids could watch famous actors perform Shakespeare monologues in their living room,” Catherine Allen, AR/VR specialist & kids app producer, who has worked on products like Barefoot World Atlas and Elmer’s Photo Patchwork, told me. “They could see what a famous Henry Moore sculpture looks like, in their garden!”

Earlier this month the AR startup Osmo, which creates board games, puzzle pieces and blocks that interact with mobile games and iPads, raised $24 million. More than 22,000 schools have adopted its products, a fivefold increase from a year ago, according to the company.

Many parents may be reluctant to expose their kids to VR experiences because of the lack of safety research. AR, on the other hand, isn’t immersive, and plays out as a digital layer that enhances, or enables further, what is possible to do in real life.

“One of the sweet spots for AR on phones and tablets is at the intersection of toys and games. I would generally call them kids products,” Jay Wright, president and general manager of Vuforia at PTC, the company behind the platforms that power many of the toys and games that run on AR, says. “Some are strictly for entertainment use, but many of them are designed to be educational. More and more of them are beginning to support STEM education.”

One example of this new push toward STEM-focused, educational gaming is SmartGurlz, an AR startup launched by an American expat living in Denmark.

It all began with the simple wish of its founder to help her teenage daughter with math, and evolved into an experience tailored to girls with the aim of instilling an interest in science and technology. The video-equipped “Siggy Robots” carry out missions and adventures that require its audience of young female players to learn to code along the way in order to complete each of the story-based challenges.

“This is really an exciting time where AR is used to reinspire learning again. Kids are now exposed to so much great technology in their leisure time and yet so little innovation goes into teaching,” Sharmi Albrechtsen, founder and CEO at SmartGurlz, says. “It’s really a pity — since it is a huge potential from a market perspective but also societal. Many kids lose interest in STEM because we have not been able to excite them!”

SmartGurlz launched last month and sold out on Amazon.

“I strongly believe that when it comes to STEM or teaching, the most important thing is to first capture the imagination of the students and then their curiosity,” Silas Adekunle, co-founder and CEO of Reach Robotics, a U.K.-based startup that combines robotics with AR in the gaming space, told me. “AR has so much potential to make classrooms more interactive and engaging, with new ways to visualize complex information.”

Other examples of AR-powered toys and games, many of them STEM-focused, that have hit the shelves this holiday season include: Hologrid: Monster Battle; Neobear Magnifier NEO; Virtual Explorer Antopia Adventure; AirHogs Connect Mission Drone; and Skylanders. And it hasn’t come with the kind of collateral damage or disruptive cost to traditional toymakers as we might have expected.

“The interesting part is that the products and manufacturers that succeed use technology to enhance the play value of the products they bring to market,” Reyne Rice, chief executive of ToyTrends told the BBC in September.

This new breed of digitized toys and games introduces a digital layer that creates additional value to the underlying business proposition for toymakers.

An example is Danish toymaker LEGO’s NEXO KNIGHTS, named “Toy of the Show” at the London Toy Fair 2016 and also powered by Vuforia. The AR component of its multi-platform gaming ecosystem depends, in part, on the expanded product line. For example, players can unlock new features, powers and game levels by purchasing new toy sets.

“If it can drive additional purchases of physical toys, that’s a really good model. It’s like the razor and razor blade dynamic. The digital game is the razor and the physical toys are the razor blades.”  Wright says.

The digital soul that has been instilled in the physical toy allows for the industry to establish a stronger narrative with the kids who play its games and in turn only strengthens the way toymakers can market, engage and sell their products. Instead of threatening to cannibalize their current offering, AR actually serves to enhance and expand it.

An Amazon Echo may be the key to solving a murder case

Internet-connected devices may start helping in criminal cases. As first reported in The Information, police in Bentonville, Arkansas have issued a warrant to Amazon, asking the company to hand over data from an Echo device to help prosecute a suspected murderer.

James Andrew Bates, the suspect in the case, was charged with first-degree murder in November of 2015 after authorities found victim Victor Collins strangled and drowned in Mr. Bates’ hot tub.

Mr. Bates told police he’d invited Collins and two other friends, Owen McDonald and Sean Henry, over to watch a football game and said he decided to go to bed about 1 a.m., leaving the victim and McDonald to hang out and drink in his hot tub.

According to Bates’ affidavit, he found Collins face down in the water when he woke up several hours later. However, McDonald says he left Bates and Collins around 12:30 a.m., which was a story confirmed by McDonald’s wife.

According to phone records, Bates was also texting a woman throughout the evening and had placed several calls to his dad, other friends (including McDonald) and the Flying Fish restaurant. None of the calls went through and Bates told police these were accidental butt dials.

Bates has several internet-connected devices in his home, including a Nest thermostat and a Honeywell alarm system, but the key witness in the case may be his Amazon Echo, which, as per The Information, police records say could have controlled the streaming music, which was being wirelessly transmitted throughout the night using Echo’s assistant Alexa.

However, it’s unclear how much data police could extract from the device or how useful that data would be in the case. Alexa is always listening through a system of seven built-in microphones but waits for you to say the “wake word” to send it commands, like asking for the weather or which music to play, according to the company. The device also streams your audio to the cloud, including a fraction of a second of audio before the wake word.

Amazon has so far declined to hand over information in the case, according to court records, and the company says it will not be releasing customer information “without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us. Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course.”

Police have seized the Echo from Bates home anyway, as material evidence, but the device that might offer a better clue as to what happened that night might be the home’s smart water device. According to The Information, court records show Bates’ home ran 140 gallons of water between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. on the night in question.

But the broader takeaway in this instance is just how much these IoT devices could be used for or against us, legally. This appears to be a first-of-its-kind case and we are sure to see many more of these types of inquiries in the future.