Episode 194 – Human Roombas

Michael and Michael get back together to talk about the latest smart home news, starting with the Amazon acquisition of Ring.  The pair speculate on what this level of integration in the Amazon ecosystem could bring — everything from delivery verification, to drone delivery enablement to package recipient identification. Mobile apps captured their attention with location-based & experience-driven marketing as well as with augmented reality.  Augmented reality also features in this week’s episode in the form of a motorcycle helmet prototype  and the upcoming Ghostbusters mobile game. What do you think will be the next big thing in IoT?   … Continue reading

Episode 185 – Transparency

Jimmy Kimmel’s Tonight Show, Tonight Showbotics, featuring Hanson Robotics’ Sophia They’re playing basketball! 🏀 Both for the start of the college basketball season, and at the state fair.  Michael R found an interesting article about how one can win those games of skill and chance at the state fair, leveraging a combination of science and professional sports talent. In addition to making transparent the ways that a Mets pitcher can win the games at your local carnival, the team takes a look at the transparent skull of Sophia, the artificial intelligence android by Hanson Robotics, how NPR is crowdsourcing journalism … Continue reading

Episode 173 – Babel Fish

Computer to computer communications protocols used to start with a high pitched whine & crackle over a telephone line, using a modem – a modulator / demodulator – to establish a handshake.  Computer to computer interactions are nothing new — but AI to AI interfaces are becoming more and more common.  We discussed some of the ramifications in earlier episodes of the podcast — links below for those — and now we turn to how artificial intelligences create optimized methods of communication between themselves.  Like the Twitch example of two Google Home bots talking with one another, the first few … Continue reading

Episode 164 – Addictive AR

      Michael and Michael start this episode off with an excellent roundup of how technology gets that dopamine drip going with an article from The Guardian that focuses on the newly published book by Adam Alter, Irresistible.  Starting with the psychological and cultural affinity with liking content, and proceeding quickly to the linkages between gambling and games, the article walks the path to augmented reality and virtual reality — what makes an experience repeatable and desirable to come back to again and again. Turning their attention to augmented reality, Michael and Michael imagine the the future of not … Continue reading