Just
few more days until the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the world’s
premiere trade show for computer and video games, that is being held at the LA
Convention Center. E3 will be taking place from Tuesday, June 11 till Thursday,
June 13. Before the doors open for the show let get a glimpse at the state of
the industry.
Based
on the past 3 years of support from the hardware platforms and the software
development tools – the E3 community has now returned to immersive and engaging
story for their games. The capabilities of the new video cards and computers,
including mobile devices, has brought a freedom to developers to be
creative again rather than focusing on “will the game play on the
platform”.
Games
industry is the fastest growing sector of the modern entertainment industry and
is part of modern culture. Today game enthusiasts expect a richer, fuller and
more involving game experience. Under such demanding clientele, more dynamic
and multidirectional developments of games have been created, and the pallets
of emotions both in the game and experienced by the player, have been greatly
increased. Production studios strive for authenticity and put meticulous
attention to detail, bringing players into a new level of realism, which may
include 3D technology that changes flat images to three-dimensional images and
cinematic quality photo-realistic events. Today’s game has a story line,
utilizes state of the art visual graphics and utilizes new, advanced form of
interaction with the player. In addition there is also increased proliferation
of artists in the games industry, who get to express themselves creatively and
individually. The impact of the games on mass culture is unquestionable and its
value is growing at a dynamic pace.
New adventure, horror, search, RPG, and on-line games are being shown from both indie and established developers. While only a couple major titles have big releases planned, the number of new stories and game concepts is the largest in the past several years.
These titles are also NOT just focusing on VR, they are treating that as just another platform to support and making the games for multi-platform experiences (VR and standard) in many cases. Accessories for controlling the game, walking around and being fully physically immersed in the game, new sensors, games from major publishers and companies as well new experiences from independent developers.
Pepcom’s “Digital Experience just had their show late last month at San Francisco’s Metreon City View, where a wide array of technology companies exhibited their latest innovative consumer products to the members of the press. The demo showcase was a much more intimate affair compared to previous shows. The usual categories ranging from computers, connected home, and personal health were there, as were some unusual products like mine detectors, hacking games and digital license plates.
As a journalist who eagerly looks forward to this event every year, but at the same time is beset with miserable seasonal allergies, it can be quite challenging to have enough energy for me to even get to the venue. Around this time, I have a sniffling, runny nose along with a cough that I can’t ever seem to get rid of. Unfortunately, this year was my worse bout with allergies ever and wasn’t even sure if I was suffering from just allergies, a cold, or a combination of the two. To top it off, I had a sinus infection, as well.
Luckily I stumbled upon the Tivic Health booth where they were demonstrating their bioelectronic device called the “ClearUp Sinus Pain Relief”. Since I was still suffering from allergies and a sinus infection, I couldn’t think of a better candidate than myself to try it out. Using non-evasive microcurrent waveforms, the procedure just took five minutes of gliding the product around the nose, top of my cheek and above the eyes, the product vibrates certain treatment points on my face.
After the treatment nearly a month later, it seems my allergies were minor and nearly non-existent. I’ve never breathed freely in the month of May and June in over a decade. It’s been a big relief for me, since I usually am coughing in the middle of the night for several weeks at a time and not getting any sleep. Perhaps it was a combination of the antibiotics and the treatment, but I can swear this gizmo seemed to work pretty well for me, even by trying it once. I really may just want to buy one of these for my well being, as it just got its launch on Indiegogo this month.
In terms of latest and greatest in innovation in the Entertainment arena, one of the best products for movies, music and gaming comes from a company mainly known for gaming; HyperX. They developed an amazing gaming 3D 7.1 surround headset, powered by Audeze 100mm Planar Magnetic Drivers, that can rival audiophile headsets. Not only do you get the best in gaming effects, but the best in movie sound effects, as well as a pure live sound in music that tracks your head, using Waves Technology, in a 360 degree environment. This is an item that brings out the best in sound effects for anything you listen to. I couldn’t take the headset off as I was impressed with the technology of this gadget. This headset will be released in Q3.
Kingston Technology added a new product in their microSD line with another innovative product that will tailor to the needs of security cameras, including home surveillance and dash cams. The Kingston MicroSD High Endurance series (32GB, 64GB, 128GB) will stand through the most extreme conditions as it can continuously record 20,000 hours of 1080p video on a 128GB card on security cameras and dash cams. That’s about 2 years and 3 months of non-stop recording. No need to worry about the housing of the card, as it will protect no matter how cold or hot the temperature becomes or no matter how blistery or wet it becomes.
We all heard of Miracle-Gro plant food that we feed our plants with. Now they have come out with an innovative hydroponic growing system called the Miracle-Gro Twelve Indoor Growing System., which was also designed to be stackable, if more plants are needed. This would be useful for people who have a need for herbs all year around, such as basil and mint or vegetables, such as lettuce and kale. Now no need to worry about whether or not the herbs are in season ever again. No watering systems are needed; just electricity and some space indoors. Via Bluetooth, you can control watering, feeding and the lights from your smartphone’s app. Notifications may warn you when you are low in water or if the water pump is stalled. Seems like anyone can now be a Tom Thumb if they have a smart-phone, but don’t forget to give it some Miracle-Gro nutrient food.
There is a new resurgence in searching for precious metals these days. Like the 49’ers in California back in the 1800’s searching for gold, today’s technology has improved with the combination of a smartphone app as it can detect what metals are underneath the surface ground. Miners and adventurers alike are now buying metal detectors in droves, making Minelab the global leader in metal detection technology in Gold mining.
Offering two different metal detectors, the “Go Find” series, which makes an affordable and fun activity for the entire family, just like how mushroom hunting can be, and the “Equinox” series, for the die hard user with a multitude of options who knows exactly what type of metal they are searching for. Designed more for the archaeologist or mine squad experts.
The Reviver Company has come out with an industry first: a digital licence plate. They have been working very closely with state regulatory agencies in collaboration with the DMV. They have been fully approved by California and Arizona with Texas and Florida not far behind as they have already passed legislation with more states to follow.
Of course, the real question is do we really need a connected licence plate? It may sound funny, but it is simply an advancement of the “smart-car-connected car” going full fledge into the smart cities infrastructure world that we will be all apart of .
It will help benefit consumers, businesses and state agencies —from automated vehicle renewals, to parking and tolling, to safety and security. Since the plates are essentially built-in hardware that is capable of updating via software, it will make it much more fun for the registered vehicle user to be able to customize their plates and adding their personal messaging, such as “I’d rather be running…for president”.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind having one saying, “I’d rather be at Pepcom”.
The first
decade of the 21st century was known for introducing smartphones to the masses,
as well as introducing the first smart TV. Ten years later starting in 2010,
the world became socially connected thanks to companies such as Facebook,
Twitter and Netflix. We are now rapidly approaching a new period of consumer
technology called the Data Age.
This “Data
Age” comes to life under the shadow of the tremendous flow of data security and
privacy concerns becoming the number one issue across the entire globe.
Different countries are dealing with these complex issues with different
solutions and with The European Union for example, implemented strict rules and
regulations, last year, called GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
China, on other hand, has no government organized privacy and security
regulations.
Both
companies and individuals are at risk.
“With computing processing power increasing dramatically, even passwords
that are 14 to 20 characters long will be readily crackable and largely
ineffective for protecting high-value, high-risk assets and transactions by
2020”- warns Forrester, an American market research company that provides
advice on existing and potential impact of technology to its clients and the
public.
As risky as
this as can be, the world must stay
connected because only this connectivity allows us to live in smart cities, in
intelligent houses, drive connected cars and very soon be driven by autonomous
vehicles.
This next
generation of data connectivity will require wireless technology from 5G that
can connect devices with the next generation fast speeds. Those in the race to
bring the technology to marketplace and get a foot int the door for the
business that goes with it include China Telecom, KDDI in Japan, SK telecom in
South Korea, through Verizon and AT&T in the USA, Shaw and Rogers in
Canada, to Ericsson all over Europe:
Vodafone and BT in United Kingdom, Deutsche Telecom in Germany, Orange
in France and Telefonica in Spain. As 5G becomes a crucial component of
technology development, the entire world needs to adapt to it.
In the last
few years, home security cameras, thermostats, and connected lighting equipment
have become more common in homes and sales continue to increase. Just imagine
how the IoT (Internet of Things) environment is going to explode with the
rollout of 5G.
For example,
for smart home development into existing homes, consumers usually don’t buy all
those devices from the same platforms or at the same time. This brings the
challenge of how the consumer can connect all these different products, brands
and platforms together as well as the devices that haven’t even been invented
yet. The idea of a practical smart home is like bringing together different
instruments to create a symphony orchestra that need to play in unison. Following connectivity, the Smart Home’s
Next Trend will be Interoperability and Intelligence.
It is
difficult to imagine the smart home without some type of digital assistance
activated by voice and equipped with Artificial Intelligence. Three truths
about voice/AI assistant are: 1.) Digital assistance is going into everything:
devices, appliances and cars 2.) Support for digital assistance has become
table stakes: services, brands, commerce 3.) Voice is quickly becoming the
“go-to” interface – it allows you to keep doing what you are doing as well as
have the digital assistant do something that normally requires your hands.
For example,
Amazon Alexa has nearly 60,000 skills and 20,000+ compatible devices. The way
how we interact with digital assistance shown the study done by Consumer
Technology Association (CTA) in August 2018. US online adult study shows how
people make a use of Amazon Alexa(in%): Ask questions – 63, Check the weather – 58, Listen
to music/radio/podcasts – 50, Set a timer or alarm – 45, Call someone – 32, Check
the news/sports – 30, Send a message to someone – 25, Search for
recipes/cooking information – 23, Check personal calendar – 22.
We also
beginning to understand the limits of automation. AI intelligence and
automation are really transform the way we access data, we use data. AI is
helping us to understand the data. The
first generation of voice control required people to learn “command words” and
“special phrases”. With AI in the
system, it can now understand conversation and what actions to do next. For example, without AI and data analysis you
would say “Alexa, turn up the thermostat by 2 degrees” now you can say “Alexa,
I am cold”. The system will recognize
who “I” is and the context for the word “cold” based on what location you were
talking from and the system can respond “would you like me to turn up the
thermostat by 2 degrees”.
This
direction of connectivity, interoperability, high speed data and analytics as
well as “personalized models” is what is driving the next generation of Smart
Home. The “personalized models” are the
core of the privacy concerns. It means
the computer has to both know that it is you, and more importantly know
everything about you – what you eat, where you shop, what temperature you like
the house, what shows you watch and what music you listen to, who you visit and
talk to, what your schedule is, what your interests are, To be able to be helpful, the computer has to
know how to help. By knowing how to help
you be more comfortable, it means that all of that data has to be stored
someplace, and hopefully used only for your benefit. Governments, companies, and technology are
all working together, finally, to try and insure the next decade is a
beneficial Data Age to make your life better.
In this interview recorded for Roadway Media at GDC 2019, Patrick Flanagan of THX talks to Pallab Chatterjee about the company offering for home theaters at GDC 2019. Follow the interview are the demos of THX products.
Unity Technologies demonstrates real-time Ray Tracing technology for car manufactures at GTC 2019. Ray Tracing technology what is emulation how light behaves in real world allow to change a color of a car, color and fabric on the seats and much more.
In this interview recorded for Roadway Media at GTC 2019, CEO of Kazuhm talks to Pallab Chatterjee about the next generation of workload processing platform that Kazuhm presents at GTC 2019.
At GTC 2019 HP presents Data Science Workstation from their Z Workstations Family and new VR Headset. The new HP Reverb VR headset has twice higher resolution that previous generation of headsets on the market.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote presentation includes an announcement of Workstation for Data Scientists powered by Nvidia GPU and CUDA-X AI. It has Dual Quadro RTX 8000 with 96 GB Memory, Pre-installed for CUDA-X Accelerated Data Science – RAPIDS, TensowFlow, PyTorch, Caffe, Anaconda Distribution and it is 10X faster.
In this interview, recorded for Roadway Media at RSA 2019, Daniel
Frank of Deloitte’s Cyber Risk and Financial Services team talks to Bright Blue
Innovation’s Lidia Paulinska about GDPR, US privacy regulations and the
integration of privacy requirements and practices into the existing security
environment. The discussion includes
trends applicable to SMBs and enterprise clients.
In this interview, recorded for Roadway Media at RSA 2019, Larry
Link, President & CEO of Cequence talks to the Bright Blue Innovation’s
Lidia Paulinska about the increased attack surface for security based on the
direct to business & customer exposure from the use of external facing
applications. They discussed the need
and solutions for administering and protecting the application space.
In this interview, recorded for Roadway Media at RSA 2019,
the CEO Jay Kim of Datalocker talks to Bright Blue Innovation’s Lidia Paulinska
about the expanding need for secure removable storage media in the enterprise
and SMB marketplace.
