Hello All –
This week we start with a great post by Christopher Doyle covering opportunities to cut through needless advertising hyperbole. A few great pieces from the Times on Antarctica and Climate Change, followed by an interesting piece on the weight of a proton. Have you read much about AI or Machine Learning? It would be time well spent as evidenced by IBM and Apple’s research. Virtual Reality is but just one aspect of technology poised to make dramatic differences in our lives in the not-so-distant future. We shift our focus to to look the advances within Bluetooth standards, the return of Google Glass within enterprise, the effects of Amazon’s recent push and Alexa upon Sears, Home Depot, and how we communicate with our smart devices. If this is the beginning of Skynet, it is certainly gaining speed. Finally within transportation, we see more changes as China builds the largest airport terminal on Earth and Elon Musk pushes a new Hyperloop in the Northeast Corridor.
Have a great week end.
M
1. Accentuate The Negative: Branding & Identity Design By Christopher Doyle
“Designer Christopher Doyle had seen far too many agencies’ bland What We Do pages filled with cliches like “Solve client communications issues,” “Create positive human experiences,” or “Help organizations create lasting impact,” so he focused more of his energies on a What We Don’t list. From “Know how to whistle with two fingers,” to “Enjoy roller coasters,” “Like peas,” and “Watch Homeland,” the clever approach reveals plenty about his personality and his approach to design.”
http://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/accentuate-the-negative-branding-identity-design-by-christopher-doyle/
2. Where Else Does The U.S. Have An Infrastructure Problem? Antarctica
“The United States has had the most ambitious research program in Antarctica for 50 years. But our reporters journeyed there and found the infrastructure is aging and deteriorating, and the new price tags are high.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/climate/where-else-does-the-us-have-an-infrastructure-problem-antarctica.html
3. A Brighter Future For Electric Cars And The Planet
“There is simply no credible way to address climate change without changing the way we get from here to there, meaning cars, trucks, planes and any other gas-guzzling forms of transportation. That is why it is so heartening to see electric cars, considered curios for the rich or eccentric or both not that long ago, now entering the mainstream.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/opinion/a-brighter-future-for-electric-cars-and-the-planet.html
4. Surprise! The Proton Is Lighter Than We Thought
“You can’t weigh the universe’s smallest particles on a bathroom scale. But in a clever new experiment, physicists have found that one such particle—the proton—is lighter than previously thought.”
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/07/surprise-proton-lighter-we-thought
5. IBM’s AI Can Predict Schizophrenia By Looking At The Brain’s Blood Flow
“Schizophrenia is not a particularly common mental health disorder in America, affecting just 1.2 percent of the population (around 3.2 million people), but its effects can be debilitating. However, pioneering research conducted by IBM and the University of Alberta could soon help doctors diagnose the onset of the disease and the severity of its symptoms using a simple MRI scan and a neural network built to look at blood flow within the brain.”
https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/20/ibms-ai-can-predict-schizophrenia-by-looking-at-the-brains-blo/
6. Apple Launches New Blog To Share Details On Machine Learning Research
“In the first post — described as Vol. 1, Issue 1 — Apple’s engineers delve into machine learning related to neural nets that can create a program to intelligently refine synthetic images in order to make them more realistic. Using synthetic images reduces cost, Apple’s engineers pointed out, but “may not be realistic enough” and could result in “poor generalization” on real test images. Because of this, Apple set out to find a way to enhance synthetic images using machine learning.”
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/07/19/apple-new-blog-machine-learning/
7. Apple Machine Learning Journal
“Welcome to the Apple Machine Learning Journal. Here, you can read posts written by Apple engineers about their work using machine learning technologies to help build innovative products for millions of people around the world. If you’re a machine learning researcher or student, an engineer or developer, we’d love to hear your questions and feedback. Write us at machine-learning@apple.com”
https://machinelearning.apple.com/
8. When You Train Robots With VR, You Only Have to Teach Them Once
“What if you only had to show a robot a task once? OpenAI has developed an artificial intelligence system in which a robot can learn from a single, virtual demonstration and repeat that task in the real world in different setups.”
https://www.designnews.com/automation-motion-control/when-you-train-robots-vr-you-only-have-teach-them-once/2114656257129
9. Bluetooth Le Standard Gains Mesh Networking For Improved Smart Home Connectivity
“The Bluetooth Special Interest Group today announced that its Bluetooth technology has been updated with support for mesh networking, designed to create large-scale device networks by connecting multiple Bluetooth devices to one another. ”
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/07/18/bluetooth-standard-mesh-networking/
10. Google Glass Is Back, With A Focus On Enterprise
“Two years after halting sales of Glass, Google has resurrected its augmented reality headset with a new focus on enterprise.”
https://www.designnews.com/electronics-test/google-glass-back-focus-on-enterprise/128176367357162
11. Amazon’s Latest Assault Wipes $12.5 Billion Off Home Depot, Other Appliance-Seller Stocks
“Sears, which has been losing share in appliance for years, saw its stock rally as much as 25 percent early Thursday, soon after it announced it would sell its Kenmore-branded appliances on Amazon.com. The products will be compatible with Amazon’s Alexa platform.”
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/20/amazons-latest-assault-wipes-out-13-billion-off-home-depot-others.html
12. Beijing’s New Daxing Airport Will Have the World’s Largest Airport Terminal
“The battles for the best and biggest continue in the world of aviation, and the latest headline-maker is on the other side of the world, as a massive site located 29 miles south of Beijing has finally started taking shape after nearly three years of construction. Beijing Daxing International Airport topped out the steel structure of its main terminal building on June 30, marking a major milestone on the way to its opening in 2019. It’s then that the world will have a new entry on the list of largest airports. If it opened today, it would rank second in the world (after Atlanta) for passenger capacity and, at 6,600 acres, rank eighth for overall size.”
https://www.yahoo.com/style/beijing-apos-daxing-airport-world-152340230.html
13. Elon Musk Says He Has A Green Light To Build A Ny–Philly–Baltimore–Dc Hyperloop
“Elon Musk just tweeted that his Boring Company tunnel project has received “verbal [government] approval” to build a hyperloop connecting New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC.”
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/20/16003766/elon-musk-boring-company-hyperloop-nyc-philadelphia-baltimore-dc
