Monday, June 2, 2014

ASUS Transformer Book V is a Windows hybrid laptop with a detachable Android phone

Wow, just wow. ASUS has just announced the Transformer Book V (pronounced "five"), a Windows 2-in-1 laptop with a detachable Android phone. No, this isn't the Windows Phone-powered PadFone that we've been waiting for, but the package is still pretty mind-blowing. Let's break it down. First of all, the 12.5-inch tablet/laptop hybrid part has its own Windows 8.1 brain running on Intel Core architecture. Then you have the 5-inch, ZenFone 5-like Android 4.4 phone, which is the first to run on Intel's 64-bit quad-core Atom (Moorefield) chip with LTE radio. When docked, the phone's Android interface is displayed within Windows 8, and you can also switch to the full Android tablet interface. In other words, you get five modes in total (hence the name): a Windows tablet, a Windows laptop, an Android phone, an Android tablet and an Android laptop.

ASUS Transformer Book V eyes-on

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The 0.8kg tablet part comes with a 12.5-inch HD IPS display, 4GB of RAM and a 28Wh battery that claims to offer up to 10 hours of web browsing time. In terms of storage space, the Windows tablet packs flash storage of up to 128GB, which works alongside a 7mm-thick hard drive of up to 1TB in the battery-less keyboard. As for the phone itself, we're looking at 140g, 11mm-thick package featuring a 2,500mAh battery plus 2GB of RAM, up to 64GB of storage and 8MP/2MP cameras. For those who are wondering, you can access the phone's storage within Windows the same way you normally plug an Android device into a Windows 8 device.

Judging by the fact that the product was kept underneath a glass case at Computex, it might be a while before we can actually buy it. We'll keep poking ASUS until we hear more, so stay tuned.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Google's Self Driving Card - Next Step.....

Google designs new self-driving vehicles that lose the steering wheel and pedals

Google has been tweaking its self-driving car project for years, but now it's taking another big step. Later this summer it will start testing prototype vehicles it's designed from the ground up, instead of merely retrofitting existing vehicles. Announced tonight the the Code Conference, the new prototypes aren't equipped with a steering wheel, mirrors, pedals or other vestiges of vehicles gone by, and for now are limited to a maximum speed of 25MPH. As explained in an early preview to Re/code, the car is driven entirely by computer, with backup automated systems for brakes and steering that would take over in case of a failure of the primary setup. So far, Google says it's not planning to sell the vehicles itself, but is looking for "friends and partners to bring them to market. Following rumors from late last year, the automated cars could partner with a "friend" like Uber for a delivery service that runs on autopilot. Take a peek at test drives and demo videos explaining how the cars work after the break.

The prototypes shown have a rounded, cartoonish appearance, and Google says they're built with foam and flexible windshields that reduce the chance for injury if they do collide with anything. Before they hit the road entirely sans-drive though, Google will need to address regulations requiring a test driver inside. It expects new legislation will allow for the fully-automated vehicles soon, which we guess is bound to be better than the texting, eating or napping drivers we currently share our commutes with.

An article from - http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/27/google-whips-up-its-own-self-driving-vehicles-that-ditch-things/

Monday, January 27, 2014

Google acquired an Aritificial Inteligence Company...

Google will buy London-based artificial intelligence company DeepMind. The Informationreports that the acquisition price was more than $500 million, and that Facebook was also in talks to buy the startup late last year. We’ve emailed Google and DeepMind for comment. The acquisition was originally confirmed by Google to Re/code.

Google’s hiring of Deepmind will help it compete against other major tech companies as they all try to gain business advantages by focusing on deep learning. For example, Facebook recently hired NYU professor Yann LeCunn to lead its new artificial intelligence lab, IBM’s Watson supercomputer is now working on deep learning, and Yahoo recently acquired photo analysis startup LookFlow to lead its new deep learning group.

DeepMind was founded by neuroscientist Demis Hassabis, a former child prodigy in chess, Skype and Kazaa developer Jaan Tallin, and researcher Shane Legg.

This is the latest move by Google to fill out its roster of artificial intelligence experts and, according to Re/code, the acquisition was reportedly led by Google CEO Larry Page. If all three of DeepMind’s founders work for Google, they will join inventor, entrepreneur, author, and futurist Ray Kurzweil, who was hired in 2012 as a director of engineering focused on machine learning and language processing.

Kurzweil has said that he wants to build a search engine so advanced that it could act like a “cybernetic friend.”

After it acquired Nest earlier this month, critics voiced concerns about how much customer data the smart device maker would share with Google. The company’s purchase of Boston Dynamics last month also sparked confusion about why a search company needs a robotics maker.

Google looks like it is better prepared to allay user concerns over its latest acquisition. According to The Information’s sources, Google has agreed to establish an ethics board to ensure DeepMind’s artificial intelligence technology isn’t abused.

But the company may also have to clarify what exactly DeepMind’s AI tech does. Thecompany’s site currently just has a landing page, with a relatively vague description that says DeepMind is “a cutting edge artificial intelligence company” to build general-purpose learning algorithms for simulations, e-commerce, and games. As of December, the startup had about 75 employees, says The Information.

Re/code reports that Founders Fund and Horizons Ventures are both major investors in the startup. Deepmind was started about three years ago, according to LinkedIn profiles.

In 2012, Carnegie Mellon professor Larry Wasserman wrote that the “startup is trying to build a system that thinks. This was the original dream of AI. As Shane [Legg] explained to me, there has been huge progress in both neuroscience and ML and their goal is to bring these things together. I thought it sounded crazy until he told me the list of famous billionaires who have invested in the company.”

Article from Techcrunch.

Deep Learning is an algorithm for Atrifical Intelligence, were most companies are working on....

Thursday, January 23, 2014

ICICI Lombard Insurance App - Insure

ICICI Lombard, one of the largest general insurance companies in India, has been at the forefront of adopting emerging technologies to maintain its competitive edge. By utilizing the mobile platform to enhance customer experience and increase employee productivity, the firm has achieved yet another technology milestone. The firm has innovatively used mobile technology to simplify the process of insurance claim. For example, traditionally, for claiming motor insurance, customers had to follow a lengthy and cumbersome process of taking their damaged vehicle to the garage, calling the toll free number of the insurance company, and sharing the policy details. Then, they had to arrange the forms and documents required to support the claim. To shorten the otherwise lengthy procedure, the company launched an in-house developed Mobile Claims App called ‘Insure’ for the customers and transformed the way in which claims were traditionally intimated. “Our Insure app empowers customers to intimate a claim of their vehicle through their mobile phones. Customers can click picture(s) of the damaged parts and send it to us through this app. The app also allows the customer to record and upload incident description in his/her voice,” says Eswaranatarajan N, Chief – Operation and Technology, ICICI Lombard. This ensures that customers collect necessary evidence in terms of images and audio record and transmit it instantaneously to the claims office, thus ensuring faster claim process. The Insure application not only helps the customer to intimate a claim seamlessly but also allows them to view the nearest cashless garage network of ICICI Lombard in time when he/she experiences a car breakdown. “We have also included a feature of locating the nearest cashless network hospital as well as the nearest ICICI Lombard office. This has been made possible with our GPS technology feature, which we have incorporated in the app,” adds Eswaranatarajan. Presently the app is available on the Android platform and will be soon be available for the rest of the platforms i.e. iOS, Windows 8 and BlackBerry. Eswaranatarajan tells us that since the launch of ‘Insure’, approximately 7,600 customers have downloaded the app from the Android market. The firm has also developed another in-house app called ‘FastTrack’ for on-field claim surveyors. Earlier, to lodge a customer’s claim, an ICICI Lombard’s on-field surveyor had to first visit the site, click images of the damaged vehicle via digital camera and at the end of the day visit the nearest ICICI Lombard branch office to sort and upload images and enter data into the claim system. This process generally took 2-3 days and there were instances of human error(s) while lodging a claim manually. Today, using the FastTrack app built for an Android tablet, on-field surveyors can take images, fill in the necessary data and immediately sync information to central server to process claim. “The entire cycle is now possible on a real-time basis. This has further reduced the time taken for lodging the claims by two days, as data is now synced immediately to the central server. Earlier, surveyors used to attend 4-5 cases in a day. But, now with the introduction of the mobile app, each surveyor completes 7-8 cases in a day. Also, overall there has been a 35 percent increase in resource efficiency,” adds Eswaranatarajan.