Watson IOT

http://www.ibm.com/internet-of-things

Consumer release of Magic Leap

Release expected in next 18 mo. - Fall/Winter 2017.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2016/11/02/inside-magic-leap-the-secretive-4-5-billion-startup-changing-computing-forever/#2c23471ee83f

https://www.wareable.com/ar/magic-leap-need-to-know-release-date-price-specs-features

Reddit answers by author:
https://www.reddit.com/r/magicleap/comments/5azhtx/i_wrote_the_new_forbes_cover_story_about_magic/

The Secretive $4.5 Billion Startup 'Magic Leap' Is Gearing Up To Release A Consumer Version of Its Tech (forbes.com)54

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday November 03, 2016 @09:25PM from the shrouded-in-secrecy dept.

Magic Leap is an incredibly secretive company based in Florida that develops "mixed reality" technology. While the company was valued at $4.5 billion in its latest round of financing, Magic Leap has never released a product. "It has never given a public demonstration of a product, never announced a product, and never explained the proprietary 'lightfield' technology that powers its products," writes David M. Ewalt for Forbes. That may be about to change, however, as the CEO Rony Abovitz said in a rare interview that the company has spent a billion dollars perfecting a prototype and has begun constructing manufacturing lines in Florida (Editor's note: may be paywalled, alternate source), gearing up for a release of a consumer version of its technology. "We are building a new kind of contextual computer," Abovitz says. "We're doing something really, really different." The final product of theirs is expected to fit into a pair of glasses when everything is said and done. "When you're wearing the device, it doesn't block your view of the world; the hardware projects an image directly onto your retina through an optics system built into a piece of semitransparent glass (the product won't fry your eyeballs; it's replicating the way we naturally observe the world instead of forcing you to stare at a screen)." Forbes adds:The hardware also constantly gathers information, scanning the room for obstacles, listening for voices, tracking eye movements and watching hands. As a result, mixed-reality objects are aware of their environment and have the ability to interact with the real world. On Magic Leap's hardware a Pokemon might escape capture by ducking behind your couch or, assuming you live in a "smart" home, turning off your lights and hiding in the dark. In one of its demos the Magic Leap team shows off a computer-generated "virtual interactive human," life-size and surprisingly realistic. Abovitz and his team imagine virtual people (or animals or anything else) as digital assistants -- think Siri on steroids, except with a physical presence that makes her easier to work with and harder to ignore. Ask your virtual assistant to deliver a message to a coworker and it might walk out of your office, reappear beside your colleague's desk via his or her own MR headset and deliver the message in person.Ewalt goes on to write about Abovitz's life growing up and the past companies he has founded, which have ultimately helped lead him to Magic Leap.

Google home, Google assistant, Google AI, Google Pixel assistant: review

http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/3/13504658/google-home-review-speaker-assistant-amazon-echo-competitor

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3138045/android/google-assistant-clarity-consistency.html
Summary: Assistant is inconsistent across devices - different assistants stitched together across apps, each behaves differently and responds to commands with varying degrees.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3129098/artificial-intelligence/why-google-a-i-is-the-last-user-interface.html#tk.drr_mlt
Summary: Google assistant is context-aware and offers true AI that can remember and recall facts about the user for personalization, but connecting to other 3rd party assistants drops off the experience out of AI framework. 3rd party assistants (Siri, Alexa, Cortona, etc) require users to memorize tasks - Alexa offers 3,000 and allows for add-ons by developers. Assistant can figure out what the user wants.

Samsung acquired 'Viv labs' which was founded by the original Siri team when Apple bought Siri.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3132396/personal-technology/google-pixel-phone-packs-a-powerful-voice-assistant-but-it-s-no-alexa.html#tk.drr_mlt
Summary: The assistant on Pixel is good at context awareness, but its task list is limited - delivery of commands is sub-par compared to Alexa or Siri. Smart understanding, not strong on for example, search results.

google home

Google Gets Serious About Home Automation: Unveils Google Home, Actions on Google and Google Wifi (techcrunch.com)38

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @07:20PM from the always-listening dept.

At its hardware launch event earlier today, Google launched Google Home, a voice-activated speaker that aims to give Amazon's Echo a run for its money. The speaker is always-listening and uses Google's Assistant to deliver sports scores, weather information, commute times, and much more. Tech Crunch reports:So like the Echo, Google Home combines a wireless speaker with a set of microphones that listen for your voice commands. There is a mute button on the Home and four LEDs on top of the device so you can know when it's listening to you; otherwise, you won't find any other physical buttons on it. As for music, Google Home will feature built-in support for Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora and others. You can set up a default music service, too, so you don't always have to tell Google that you want to play a song "on Spotify." Google also noted that Home's music search is powered by Google, so it can understand relatively complex queries. Music on Google Home will also support podcast listening and because it's a Cast device, you can stream music to it from any other Cast-enabled device. Home integrates with Google's Chromecasts and Cast-enabled TVs. For now, that mostly means watching YouTube videos, but Google says it will also support Netflix, too. Google Home will cost $129 (with a free six-month trial of YouTube Red) and go on sale on Google's online store today. It will ship on November 4.What's more is that developers will be able to integrate their third-party apps with Google Assistant via "Actions on Google." With Actions on Google, developers will be able to create two kinds of actions: Direct and Conversation. Direct is made for relatively simple requests like home automation, while Conversation is made for a back and forth interaction utilizing API.ai. Actions on Google will also allow third-party hardware to take advantage of Google Assistant. Those interested can sign-up for the service today. But Google didn't stop there. The company went on to reveal all-new, multi-point Wifi routers called Google Wifi. The Verge reports:The Wifi router can be purchased two ways: as a single unit or in a multipack, just like Eero. A single unit is $129, while the three-pack will cost $299. Google says Wifi will be available for preorder in the U.S. in November and will ship to customers in December. There was no mention of international availability. Google says it has developed a number of technologies to make the Wifi system work, including intelligent routing of traffic from your phone or device to the nearest Wifi unit in your home. It supports AC 1200 wireless speeds, as well as simultaneous dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks. It also has beamforming technology and support for Bluetooth Smart. Google says the system will handle channel management and other traffic routing automatically.

AI landscape:http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/5/13167230/walt-mossberg-google-pixel-phone-industry-shake-up

All of this hardware is controlled by their AI - voice.

Look at the navigation across the top:

google daydream vr - $79 - November 16

https://vr.google.com/daydream/

google pixel phone

https://madeby.google.com/phone/

google home

https://madeby.google.com/home

google wifi

https://madeby.google.com/wifi

3rd party developers: build actions for google assistant:

https://developers.google.com/actions/

--

AT&T Digital Life - voice assistant

https://www.engadget.com/2016/01/06/att-digital-life-voice-assistant/

http://hub.interactions.net/h/i/189270589-at-t-digital-life-announces-voice-assistant-app/78141

http://www.interactions.com/speech-technology/

http://www.interactions.com/press-releases/interactions-genesys-announce-partnership-deliver-curo-speech-self-service-customer-care/

Verizon light poles for IOT

http://fortune.com/2016/09/12/verizon-sensity-internet-of-things/

How Verizon Is Moving From Telephone Poles to Light Poles for Smart Devices

• by 
 
• Aaron Pressman

 

• @ampressman

Verizon is moving from telephone poles to street lighting poles with its latest acquisition to bolster its Internet of things business.

The telecom giant has been looking for new growth areas around connected smart devices—including water meters, self-driving cars, and drones—as some of its traditional markets slow.

On Monday, Verizon said it was buying privately-held Sensity, a company that puts sensors in LED street lamps to perform functions such as monitoring traffic and detecting security threats. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

It’s the latest in a string of acquisitions to bolster the carrier’s IoT unit. Verizon agreed to pay $2.4 billion for truck tracking service Fleetmatics last month and startup Telogis, another fleet-tracker, earlier this summer.

Sensity, based in Sunnyvale, California, is a venture-capital backed startup trying to take advantage of the municipal transition to energy-saving LED street lights to create local networks of smart sensors. It has raised a total of $74 million, including a $36 million investment round last year, which included backing from General Electric  GE 1.26% , Cisco Systems  CSCO 1.91% , and mall operator Simon Property Group  SPG 1.13% .

“With Verizon, we look forward to delivering IoT connected systems on a massive scale to change how cities and communities operate around the world,” Sensity CEO Hugh Martin said in a statement.

Verizon  VZ 1.45%  is looking for new areas to add to its $132 billion of revenue as its traditional wired telephone business shrinks and growth slows in wireless, too.

Along with its recent AOL and Yahoo acquisitions to build a consumer advertising business, Verizon has been looking for growth from the IoT market, where owning a massive communications network could be a major competitive advantage.