IBM Internet of Things Investment Announcements

Source: Techkriti

IBM strategy and Internet of Things are of key of importance to the company data expertise. It was announced a major investment by IBM which will focus its strategy onto the Internet of Things, and this initiative is IBM's major investment since the Big Blue. This new investment arrives along with a partnership from The Weather Company to assist on their data analysis applications around the world, and this is just the beginning, so that it can position itself as a development platform.

The Internet of Things can be summarized as connected computers, as an Internet of connected devices that can broadcast large amounts of data from the devices usage and its users or consumers operational patterns.

IBM is not the only technology company focusing on the Internet of Things, others exist such as Predix and Cisco is also developing investment.   

IBM is building a platform that can consolidate services so that they can be able to produce Internet of Things applications.

In this context it already has BlueMix which is IBM’s Platform as a Service solution.

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Technology Augment Reality Example of Business Monetization

The technology of augmented reality is not something new, nevertheless for a dedicated development business to earn revenue in practical terms it still continues to face challenges. 

In this context, there is now an attempt by a company called Augment that is pushing to enable successful technology monetization with its solution. 

Subsequently, Augment has now released its own Business Presentations which is specifically aimed at sales people usage. The monetizations works by offering a subscription service for around $30 per month per user or the choice of an annual plan with considerable savings. 

For a business user, they can simply move their mobile device (e.g. iPad) once the app is installed to showcase a business catalog and presenting the visual reference results to potential or existing customers. In this case, this example works best when a business sales products that aren't so easy to carry around but will give a great visual solution to customers of how things look would like in the location once the products have been purchased (these can include furniture, white goods, art or decorations).

The way its works when setting up, is that a business user can simply upload and visualize their 3D models as augmented reality objects in just a few minutes when using Augment.

The 3D modelling compatibility includes designs created using 3ds Max, Maya or SketchUp. From this latest development, an interesting business case can be envisaged that this technology does have a future where its monetization can be achieved quite well in a not long distance future.

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How Technology Offers Businesses New Sustainability Efficient Levels

Following a recent presentation by Ginni Rometty, the CEO of IBM, at an event by the Council on Foreign Relations it was presented a vision where data is the center for competitive business advantage. This claim follows on the current context where the power of data stored by utilizing cloud computing flexibility, mobile real-time streams and social networking data.

It then follows that data analytics is an important part of the decision making process and it was stated by Ginni Rometty: "Many more decisions will be based on predictive elements versus gut instincts...decisions are still being made based on anchoring biases". An interesting development with this in mind is the solution by IBM of its software analytics CRUSH (Criminal Reduction Utilizing Statistical History). 

In another important data context is that of Social Networking and it was stated by Ginni Rometty: “The social network will be the new production line in a company... today’s knowledge workers have access to each other...your value will not be what you know, but what you share.”

The other important feature of business champions is how they deliver the best consumer value based on technology data, and it was stated by Ginni Rometty “What you will see with rapid data and social sharing is the death of the average and the era of you... businesses will be able to truly serve the individual... If you have a call center, it’s no longer about a script... It’s about a dialogue.”

Ginni Rometty vision is that where computers can be programmed to perform instructions based on custom customer preferences and that the computer will self-learn best solutions that will keep and challenge customers satisfaction by offering the best custom experiences. A current solution is that of IBM’s innovation, supercomputer Watson.

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CES 2013, Text in the shower? The Sony Xperia Z

CES 2013, The annual technology show, held in Las Vegas has once again unveiled a host of wacky and cool innovations. One of the standout items is Sony’s waterproof smartphone.

Some real innovations and some (slightly) crazy inventions are being exhibited this year, with such highlights as ‘intelligent’ cutlery, bluetooth enabled luggage tracking devices and an Android powered and controlled oven!

One of the new products that has been causing the biggest ‘splash’ thus far has been a new smartphone, designed by Sony. It has a number of unique features that make it stand out from the crowd, the most interesting being is that it is completely water resistant.

But more of that later. First, let’s take a look at the specifications. It’s thin, at only 7.9mm thick (0.3in). And, it’s big. It features a five inch (12.7cm), 1080p screen that manages to squeeze in a 443 ppi (pixels per inch) touchscreen display. The iPhone 5 and its retina display can only offer 326 ppi which has been industry standard since the launch of the iPhone 4 and has been seen as more than generous until now. The Xperia Z takes this to a new level, and while lacking the eye watering brightness of the colour palette of the iPhone 5 it adds an extra degree of realism and clarity hitherto unseen in a pocket sized smartphone.

Well, I say pocket sized. The handset can be classed as such, but only just. Bar the two Samsung models (the Note and recently released Note 2) this is by far the largest handset that has been touted as a phone as opposed to a tablet. And around CES 2013 this has borne out a new nickname and possibly a whole new category of personal tech. And so, the ‘Phablet’ is born. It no doubt feels large in the hand but its slim, lightweight design draws attention away from that. It is made from high end materials and components and features a very tactile, mirrored shatterproof glass back.

And it’s certainly fast. It features a 1.5GHz asynchronous quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor utilising 2GB of RAM. The handset is 4G ready and features ‘near field communication’ or NFC built in. NFC is a contactless data transfer system that allows information to be passed between the handset and a receptive unit with a simple scan.

Sony have been forerunners in NFC development, already having a number of different products on the market utilising the technology. Headphones, speakers and TV remotes are all available and all work seamlessly, which can only bode well for the feature on the Xperia Z.

Other features include a 13 megapixel main camera with the ability to both shoot and record using HDR technology. It runs the Android OS, its memory is expandable using microSD cards and, as mentioned earlier, is completely dust and water proofed.

The handset is rated to IP55 for dust and IP57 for water, making this phone the first that can be safely used in the bath or shower and will survive being dropped down a toilet (1 in 10 insurance claims for smartphones give this as the reason for claiming). Sony states that the handset can withstand being submerged for thirty minutes at a depth of up to one metre, and, when it becomes dirty can be simply washed under the tap.

The downside of all this proofing does mean that every port comes complete with a protective plastic cap that must remain unclipped in order for the port to be used. Although a popular feature in Japan it remains to be seen whether full waterproofing will be a sufficient lure for the western market.

Its size and the initial novelty factor will no doubt be a big draw when Sony launch the Xperia Z (a UK release date of March is pencilled in, price TBC) but whether it does enough to convert Apple and Samsung fans to its cause remains to be seen.

About the Author

Reese Jones is a tech and gadget lover, a die-hard fan of iOS and console games. She started her writing venture recently and writes about everything from quick tech tips, to mobile-specific news to tech-related DIY.

Find more about her and her work at Reese+ and tweet her @r_am_jones.

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Cartilage Can Now Be Printed on a 3D Printer

It was announced by American scientists from the Wake Forest University in North Carolina that they have developed a hybrid printer that is capable to print cartilage. It then follows that from this novel result, it may be assumed that the printed cartilage would be capable to be implanted into humans for medical reasons including re-grow cartilage.
The way scientists produced this result was by using a 3D tissue printer that consists of mixture of a typical ink jet printer combined with an electrospinning machine,  which was first seen in an article in the journal Biofabrication by the Institute of Physics.

Dr. James Yoo, author on the study stated: “This is a proof of concept study and illustrates that a combination of materials and fabrication methods generates durable implantable constructs”

Robotics Development, the New Technology Business Gold Mine?

Following on the technology used on the Curiosity mission to Mars, there is a present trend where robots are currently quite popular tools in terms of helping the advancement of science and mankind, particularly its features such as the robotic arm.

Furthermore, it seems that businesses such as PCH International are preparing to present a Kickstarter fund where Grishin Robotics  is in the frame. This trend follows on millions in funding directed at robotics development back in 2011.

In this context, as iRobot has made perception of robots quite appealing, thus Willow Garage facilitates new businesses and initiatives such as  Open Perception, Redwood Robotics and Robots for Humanity. Examples of this trend to invest in robotics include Henry Thorne of 4Moms, Primesense’s,  VirtuOz , Alderbaran-Robotics and OpenRov. Others include  Tech Socially Intelligent, Intuitive Automota and Peter Thiel Fellow.

It can be concluded that robotics can only grow in popularity and acceptability, as well as helping the development of businesses and their consumer applications.

IBM Brings High Power Intelligence to Mobile Devices

IBM is attempting to provide mobility usability to its high power somewhat perceived intelligent business machines by providing its Watson to be implemented on smartphones or at least a mobile small version which would connect to the big brother for data analysis and complex processing. In this context, it then follows that mobile capabilities will in some ways help users and technology interact in a more understandable communication and interactivity by increasing current capabilities and data complexities.

Interesting developments will follow, nevertheless it can be anticipated that science analysis will gain and benefit with a larger testing field and implementations such as described in Bloomberg reports.

The Watson is capable of operating is by searching many of sources in real-time and recognizing patterns, with some preconceived interpreting rules that can provide good results. Thus, even in the cases where the user feels that an answer or conclusion would be difficult to reach, a good example is here.  The next stage will be the Watson 2.0, which is currently in development, so that it can perform at more energy-efficient levels as a application. source San Francisco Chronicle

Twitter Will Join Next Week Linux Foundation

In an overall context, the web technology services currently active over the internet, there is an understanding by almost all and accepted that it is important to have dependencies based on Linux operating technology.  Furthermore, many technology businesses continue to join the Linux Foundation, which is a “nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux.”

The Linux Foundation purpose is to provide a neutral base where businesses and users can interact, collaborate and contribute to Linux’s development, as a result it includes many important Linux Foundation members such as IBM, Intel, Google, HP and Oracle.  The big news today is that Twitter will be join next week.

Chris Aniszczyk, Manager of Open Source (will present at  LinuxCon), Twitter stated “Linux and its ability to be heavily tweaked is fundamental to our technology infrastructure... By joining The Linux Foundation we can support an organization that is important to us and collaborate with a community that is advancing Linux as fast as we are improving Twitter.”

New members also include Inktank and Servergy.

Soft Robots That Change Colour, For Deeper Understanding

Soft robots consist of silicone and they also use hydraulic controls for movement across different types of analytical scenes.  It then follows that research conducted at Harvard University  has produced results where these type of soft robots are now capable of changing colours according to their positional  surroundings thus their visual appearance adjusts to the environment where they are situated, visiting or analysing.

Following an article in the Science Magazine, a description is given in more detail how this robot changing appearance works. Furthermore,  more information is provided at the DARPA website.

The practical implications for this technology, are interesting as it can be used for example to simulate muscle motion on flesh simulators,  prosthetics or even military applications. As a result, others projects such as Big Dog and GRASP lab may have other outcomes. Below there are videos of these robots.

DNA Microchips, A New Inspiring Technology

An impressive new development in terms of hardware technology has been implemented with success, it follows research work in the US by George Church and Sriram Kosuri of Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. It is called DNA Microchips, and the first experiment consisted of encoding a 5.27 megabit book using DNA sequences, subsquently the post-processing was able to read the book using DNA sequencing novel technique.  The new technology resulted in this experiment is that DNA sequencing can be used as an excellent alternative for hardware implementations of long-term storage of digital information.

Following this new experiment, it resulted a 1,000 times more data than has been encoded in DNA previously.  DNA consists of nucleotides, where each nucleotide can be used to encode two bits of data.  As a result, implementations of this theory are able to produce densities up to a 1 million gigabits per cubic millimeter, furthermore with a mere four grams of DNA in theory is capable of storing all the digital data created in one year. In comparison to current hardware technology, this new DNA Microchips are so much denser than any other current digital storage media which contain properties which allows data to be read thousands of years after they were encoded.

Journal reference: Science

Apple Patented Innovative Technology for Mobile Displays

Apple yesterday had an interesting patent approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  Currently, the way mobile apple iphone display technology works is by utilizing and embedding multiple layers to achieve responsiveness at different levels.  The approved new patent owned by Apple, however innovates the display technology by reducing the number of required layers, as a result it follows an embeddable integration incorporating methods that work directly on LCD.  It can then be concluded that the new innovation, will result in a thinner mobile display.

The abstract of the patent can be read below:
Disclosed herein are liquid-crystal display (LCD) touch screens that integrate the touch sensing elements with the display circuitry. The integration may take a variety of forms. Touch sensing elements can be completely implemented within the LCD stackup but outside the not between the color filter plate and the array plate. Alternatively, some touch sensing elements can be between the color filter and array plates with other touch sensing elements not between the plates.

In another alternative, all touch sensing elements can be between the color filter and array plates. The latter alternative can include both conventional and in-plane-switching (IPS) LCDs. In some forms, one or more display structures can also have a touch sensing function. Techniques for manufacturing and operating such displays, as well as various devices embodying such displays are also disclosed. Reference

It appears that Apple is fighting back from Samsung with its recent Galaxy SIII,  and attempting once again to break new ground in terms of innovation, furthermore the markets and its worldwide fan base expect only the best, perhaps with never seen before technology such as possibly flexible hardware technology.

Dancing and Martial Arts, Done by a Robot

For all Information Technology enthusiasts and particularly Artificial Intelligence the Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics sometime can appear too short on the possibilities of innovation.  We have found a robot that is capable of dancing, the humanoid robot was developed by Dongbu Robot.  This robot costs around $900, and is programmable which includes commands for movement and dancing. More information is available here.

IBM Plays The Social Software Business Game

The social business technology has seen quite a lot of activity in the recent weeks, these include Microsoft purchasing Yammer, and along these lines it was noted that Salesforce purchased Buddy Media, furthermore Oracle decided to purchase Vitrue, subsequently it was also purchased Involver.

Now enters IBM,  has now further embraced its social deeply in its business, with new social product offers which include IBM Customer Experience and Intranet Experience Suites.  IBM states that "The new software suite will help employees engage across business units and access information from a variety of sources including external and internal news feeds."

The IBM VP of social software (Jeff Schick), stated “From digital marketing and mobile commerce to websites and social media, marketers are inundated - often paralyzed - by data amassed from consumers via searches, purchase histories, and social media commentary. Combine that with in-store traffic data, call center conversations and supplier updates, and marketers confront a daily deluge of data waiting to be sifted for nuggets of intelligence...We intend to help them to see this as an opportunity, to learn to become entrepreneurial rather than gatekeepers. Many of them are waking up to the risk of being sidelined; they see the writing on the wall.”

It appears that the IT giants are now fully embracing the new social business technology, as a result it can be anticipated many new creative and innovative solutions which should rival many traditional social media technology companies and their offerings. It does however, make sense that the giants of IT join the game as they only have to gain and little to lose, we would argue that they are a few years later, nevertheless they have the resources to quickly catch up and integrate solutions with a development social mind.

Augmented Reality Goggles Glasses Tested by Google Co-Founder

Google's co-founder Sergey Brin has been testing in San Francisco the new flagship technology gadget coming into the market soon. The gadget is an augmented reality glasses called goggles, where it is capable of producing superimposing layered images into locations in real-time.

This comes as Google had confirmed that the new glasses was in research and development for a quite while, but the glasses were never seen in public at such late stages of development. Basically the glasses is capable of showing maps, messages and other information including video. Subsquently the person wearing the glasses will be able to take photos, receive messages, share video recording, and obtain directions all in real-time.

The version spotted is what Google calls "Project Glass," where the glasses are lens-free with a small, clear prism-like display mounted above either eye.  It is still unclear how the glasses are currently being powered or if there are different versions and chargeable options.

New Security Challenges from HTML5

As  HTML5 is gaining in popularity, subsequently new web applications are being created on a daily basis, however in terms of security new challenges are also being created particularly for enterprise security professionals.

The predictions for 2012,  from the HTML5 technology as it introduces new capabilities for rich web application, nevertheless new possible attack gates may be created in combination.

From the HTML4 this technology has powered most of the web for many years, as it consists of a low capability programming language, as a result developers have added and complemented it by embedding programming interpretive objects such as JavaScript, Flash, among others. In terms of security these objects are capable of compromising users as they can inject and manipulate vulnerabilities which in turn made the whole system very insecure.

With HTML5 the requirement to have these embedding objects are almost non existent, as this language and standards has already all functionality and capabilities built in, thus no need to use any of the interpretive objects.

With this new rich capabilities these include a full database that enables users to store gigabytes of information.  As an example, developers and users can execute and process full frame animation, 3D virtual reality or store applications inside the browser.

As a consequence from this technology, in terms of security by allowing to  store data within the browser, the browser itself can become a target and a tool for cyber criminals.

Furthermore, new sandboxing in HTML5 also makes "clickjacking" (tricking web users into revealing confidential information or taking control of their computer while clicking on a seemingly innocuous link) more of a risk, as web pages are no longer able to identify where commands are coming from. HTML5 from its new capabilities around cookies manipulations, which could make the removal of cookies after a certain period redundant.

If developers don't code their sites properly the security implications are that bad code may be run under a huge database of the URLs that users have been to and track all of users field input all from the browser.

Despite these new security challenges problems, there are also security benefits. These include: A reduction of the need for unverified add-ons, furthermore with HTML5 there is the capability for client-side input validation, as well as libraries that can help deal with SQL injection challenges.