New Florence. New Renaissance.

Technology and my Passion: Bill Hewitt and "Co-everything"

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

This time it is Bill and Leila Hewitt. Bill had contributed to this series in 2014 on his skills at Artisanal Baking. We welcome him back and also congratulate him for starting a new job this week as President and CEO of Aternity. Previously, he was a private equity partner, CEO of Exari Systems and Kalido, and held senior sales, marketing and management positions at companies including Novell, Peoplesoft, Hyperion Software and IBM. Bill received his degree in Business Administration from the Boston University Questrom School of Business, where he was named a distinguished alumni in 2009.

Whenever I talk to Bill, I hear about his travels and his virtual management of teams, how he stays in touch with his twins in college, the myriad of domestic projects he is working on. This column gives you a glimpse to how he juggles multiple balls - collaborating on everything and with everybody using technology. He specifically talks about the fascinating scope of digital collaboration on a new housing project:

My wife and I recently bought a small summer home on the Rhode Island coast. We are in the process of adding more room onto the property, something we are not unfamiliar with, having build two houses in the past. This time, however, technology is playing a key role in speeding up the process through better collaboration with the design, construction and decorating team.

I’m using LucidChart.com as the amateur draftsman to create rough floor plans and elevations and share them with the architect. She in turn uses them to create AutoCAD drawings to create the full construction prints for permits and the structural engineers in addition to the contractor. Because there is so much information online, we can explore different green technologies (ducted mini-splits, hydronic radiant heat, sustainable materials, on-demand water heaters) and new technologies like dielectric mirrors, which allow you to make your TV look like a framed mirror or Samsung’s FrameTV, which displays museum quality art when your TV is turned off.

We set up Pinterest and Houzz Ideabooks to share ideas with everyone so they know the direction we want to take the project. Houzz gives us the ability to include everyone in the process, including family members.

The builder has a system to report on progress through photographic evidence using apps like Fieldlens (acquired by WeWork) which can be used to validate certain parts of the project and ask for feedback on materials, finishes in real-time. Fieldlens also gives the general contractor an efficient way to collaborate with subcontractors. The video below describes more of the app.

We will also source mostly of the plumbing and lighting fixtures online. We did this with our last build, sourcing over 150 items and saving 30% over retail. We use build.com almost exclusively, and never set foot in a brick and mortar store (with the possible exception of shopping for tile.) Anything that gets installed, lighting, kitchen appliances, light fixtures, carpet, tile all get sourced online. Our experience has been the customer service is substantially better. All of the trade work will be carried out by craftsman who live and work within a 10 mile radius, a commitment we decided was a great way to make us good neighbors in our new town.

The design time on our first house was about 4 months. The build took another year, and about 5% of the expense went to rework, mostly caused by misunderstanding or mistakes between the design/build participants. This one will take about 4 weeks, for design, 25% less in time to build and we expect less than 1% rework. With better design, the builder can discuss various options for heating, cooling, windows etc in advance, which in turns speeds up the building process. With more certainty upfront, the builder can be more specific with subcontractors, which in turn results in shorter project time and fewer errors.

Finally as a bonus, our security system allows us to assign individual pins to the contractor and subs, and we have mounted what is typically a field camera used for hunting to take 25 pictures a day to create a time-lapse movie as well as catch anyone who shouldn't be there. 

All of this technology helps to reduce errors, cost and speed project completion. It also allows many things to be completed in parallel vs a more traditional serial process. Good for everyone!

Wearable Tech

Ivan Poupyrev, Google’s director of engineering and the inventor of Jacquard, envisions future applications for business attire. “You can check stock prices,” he says, or blinking LEDs could notify the wearer when it’s time to get to a meeting and provide directions to the conference room.

The technology will be subtle in appearance: “We found that brands were reluctant to put too much visible technology on the product,” Mr. Poupyrev says. “It’s really important that the product doesn’t feel like a gadget.”

WSJ

 

Ocado's robotic grocery warehouses

While Ocado’s retail business holds only a 1.4% share of Britain’s grocery market, its technology has powered the group’s 8.1 billion pound ($10.4 billion) stock market valuation, enabling it to secure partnership deals with supermarket groups around the world, including Kroger in the United States.

“This is not about Bristol, but about what it says for its technology biz,” said Bernstein analyst Bruno Monteyne.

He said the site going live as quickly as 13 months is half the typical deployment time for a larger warehouse, indicating that warehouses overseas could also be developed at a faster rate.

Reuters

 

 

Microneedle patches

Developers of microneedle patches—typically the size of a coin or slightly larger than a thumb—say the sensation for patients is similar to an elastic-band snap when pressed on the skin. Some patches are removed within a few seconds, while others are designed to stay in place for around half an hour, depending on the therapy. In addition to the patches, some companies are betting on systems with hollow microneedles that pass drugs and vaccines through their center. Along with Brisbane, Australia-based Vaxxas, the industry includes Fremont, Calif.-based Zosano Pharma Inc. and U.S. conglomerate 3M Co.

WSJ

 

 

Growth in Multistory warehouses

Prologis Inc., the largest warehouse provider in the U.S., wrapped up construction of a three-story distribution center in Seattle in October of last year. The 590,000-square-foot project, called Georgetown Crossroads, is the nation’s first logistics property to have multiple floors that are serviceable by large delivery trucks. Amazon has reportedly agreed to take up about 500,000 square feet in the warehouse, with Home Depot also planning to lease space.

Although common in the dense, costly urban centers of Asia and Europe, multistory warehouses are a novel concept in the U.S., where land is abundant and cheap and suppliers historically haven’t faced huge pressure to locate close to cities. But the future of industrial real estate is changing as e-commerce continues its rapid growth trajectory and consumers demand ever-faster delivery times.

CBRE is tracking at least 13 multistory warehouse projects completed or in the pipeline in New York City, San Francisco and Seattle. “You need to get a lot closer to people,” said David Egan, global head of industrial and logistics research at real estate brokerage CBRE. “The speed at which things have to move through the supply chain to get to wherever they need to go has increased dramatically over the past several years.”

Commercial Property Executive

 

 

 

Hawk-eye and Daytona 500

For two decades, Hawk-eye has been a digital referee in cricket, tennis, soccer, rugby, Irish hurling, badminton, the new XFL and other sports.

It is also having an impact on NASCAR, and the race today in Daytona to detect if any of the teams have been "creative". Eight projectors display patterns on each car, and 17 cameras track the patterns for about half a minute. That allows creation of a 3D model of the car, comparison to its CAD model and highlighting of areas which fail the .150-inch tolerance on metal and .200-inch tolerance on glass surfaces.

Saudi Arabia as sports haven?

On Jan. 5 the Saudi port of Jeddah echoed with the roar of hundreds of cars, motorcycles, and trucks in the Dakar Rally, a grueling two-week trek through the mountains and deserts of the kingdom—the first time the event is being held in the Middle East. That came just four weeks after the “Clash on the Dunes,” a heavyweight boxing title bout near the ancestral home of the Saudi ­ruling family, which was billed as a worthy successor to Muhammad Ali’s “Rumble in the Jungle” and “Thrilla in Manila.” And on Feb. 29, 14 thoroughbreds will take to a dirt track in Riyadh for the inaugural Saudi Cup, the world’s richest horse race, with $20 million up for grabs.

The run of big-ticket events marks a sharp turnaround for the kingdom, which barely registers on the global sporting map. It’s part of a push by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 34-year-old de facto ruler, to modernize the economy and reduce the influence of puritanical Islam.

Bloomberg

Technology & My Passion: Row Henson and Animal Rescue

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

This time it is Row Henson who after 40 years in the Human Resources Software industry retired from Oracle Corporation where she was a Human Capital Fellow. In the last four years Row has written and published two books to raise money for causes important to her. Her first book, “Travels with Mac and Row,” chronicles her travels with her rescue dog, Mac and all proceeds benefit animal rescue. Her new book, “Miracles on College Station Road,” features 50 stories of animals being treated at the University of Georgia Veterinary Teaching Hospital and these book sales will benefit scholarships to this school.

After over forty years in the Human Resources and Technology world, I retired, bought a house in the south of France, and rescued a dog.  My dog, Mackenzie (Mac) traveled with me, originally in a crate in the baggage compartment and later the airplane as she was trained to be a certified therapy animal.  I started posting pictures on my Facebook page and received so many comments on Mac’s travel that I wrote a book, (Travels with Mac & Row) to raise money for animal rescue organizations.  The book was written from Mac’s perspective and chronicles much of our travels around Europe during Mac’s almost 15 years.  We donated just under $100K to over 80 rescue organizations.

After many years of travel and hours and hours of fetching balls, frisbees and sticks, Mac began to suffer from athletic injuries – herniated discs and torn ACLs to name a few.  We were referred to the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, where Mac received amazing care.  Because the UGA VTH is a very active teaching hospital, I spent many hours in the waiting room hearing stories from pet owners about why they were there, and I was continually amazed at the miracles these veterinarians were performing on a daily basis.  I talked with my veterinarian and suggested that if the vets would help, I would create a book that told their stories.   I put together a spreadsheet and was amazed at all of the stories these incredible doctors shared with me.  With their help, I wrote 50 miracle stories of animals with a 50% chance or less of survival. Not just dog and cat stories, but pigs, cows, horses, sheep and even a lizard.  “Miracles on College Station Road” is out now and all sales from this book benefit the Mac & Row scholarship fund for students needing financial assistance to attend veterinary school. 

The great news is whether you are looking for information on animals in need of rescuing or finding out medical information on your own animal, rescued or otherwise, technology today has greatly enhanced our ability to get useful information when we need it.  For example, when I first started volunteering, rescue organizations provided little hope with a high percentage of animals being euthanized, but thanks to social media that number has been drastically reduced with many venues promoting animal rescue by breed, age, size and location. Social media has also facilitated the sharing of rescue information within a host of sites getting the right information to the right people at the right time.  As well, there are approximately 30 colleges of veterinary medicine in the US, all having their own informative and educational websites.  Here is the website associated with the UGA VTH, which also kindly provided several of the photos here.

God Bless the animals and pet lovers who donate time and money to keeping our animals safe and healthy.

Satlets

The great promise of satlets is that they are agnostic about what instruments they support and about what function they fulfill. They can be mass-produced, which both slashes costs and dents the idea that each new instrument to be sent into orbit requires a whole new satellite. Instead, you can buy a satlet (or 15) that will provide everything your camera, radar device, radio detector, infrared sensor, or data processor will need. In theory, the set can also fix itself after launch by reallocating resources: A group of linked satlets can share functions among themselves and adjust their effort based on changing needs. If a battery in one gets a bad cell, for instance, its partners can help out.

This approach makes sending stuff to space less risky, and potentially faster for developers, because they don’t need to build an entire satellite from scratch. Other companies plan to offer mass-produced satellite platforms. But few others can connect a set of them into one larger system, and make all the elements play together. With that particular pitch, NovaWurks won around 40 million Darpa dollars, and the partners jointly recruited parties to put payloads aboard.

Wired

Noncontact body imaging

A new ultrasound technique uses lasers to produce images beneath the skin, without making contact with the skin as conventional ultrasound probes do.

MIT News

Here's a video on "noncontact laser ultrasound"

Generative AI

Generative AI is one of the biggest recent advancements in artificial intelligence technology because of its ability to create something new. It opens the door to an entire world of possibilities for human and computer creativity, with practical applications emerging across industries, from turning sketches into images for accelerated product development, to improving computer-aided design of complex objects. Until now, developers interested in growing skills in this area haven’t had an easy way to get started. Developers, regardless of their background in ML or music, can get started with Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). This Generative AI technique pits two different neural networks against each other to produce new and original digital works based on sample inputs. With AWS DeepComposer, you can train and optimize GAN models to create original music.

AWS

 

 

 

Last-mile logistics innovation

The push to get products closer to consumers is changing the logistics landscape, especially in densely populated urban areas where congestion, limited space, and high real-estate prices make it difficult to tackle last-mile delivery challenges. Despite the obstacles, trends are emerging in the commercial real-estate market that highlight two very different approaches to urban warehousing and fulfillment on the rise today: increasing interest in larger, multistory facilities that leverage advanced technology and vertical space configuration, and growing demand for small, light-industrial properties of less than 120,000 square feet. Although the approaches are different, the end-game is the same: to meet increasingly fast delivery expectations in the most efficient way possible.

DC Velocity

Here is Prologis CEO discussing impact of ecommerce on supply chain and related impact on real estate

 

Visual Effects Oscars category best reflects state of Hollywood tech

Wedged each year among the smorgasbord of critical darlings, art house films and prestige dramas that fill the various Oscar categories sits what is quietly the most relevant one to casual moviegoers: best visual effects.

The below-the-line, insider category is generally the one place on awards night where box-office successes and nominees match up, as the films competing for the trophy are the few blockbuster movies that people actually pay to go see.

Just look at the numbers: The nine movies nominated for best picture this year collectively made roughly $2 billion worldwide. The five up for best visual effects made $5.7 billion. While the best picture category has long been where Hollywood presents the best version of itself, visual effects is where we see what Hollywood really is — and increasingly, what it might become in the near future.

Washington Post

This year's candidates for Visual Effects are

• 1917
• Avengers: Endgame
• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
• The Irishman
• The Lion King

Indiewire describes some of the tech in The Rise of Skywalker

Industrial Light & Magic (under the supervision of Roger Guyett) was innovative in its use of both digital and practical creature effects for the Skywalker finale, including Babu Frik, the tiny droidsmith puppet that’s become an instant fan favorite. And the Battle of Exegol required enormous animation and simulation work, with more than 1,000 Star Destroyers and 16,000 Galaxy ships locked in combat.

Here is the trailer for that movie

New Technology in the new XFL

The XFL kicks off today at 2pm eastern on ABC with several new rules. The video below explains some of the wrinkles. Besides details of the rules, schedules, rosters, the mobile app also has stadium information, and the ability to buy and manage digital gameday tickets.

The league also several new tech innovations

Replay reviews

“[Hawk-Eye] allows us to have independence from the broadcast networks. We don’t have to rely solely on them for the timing of the angles,” Dean Blandino, the XFL’s head of officiating, said Tuesday. “We can bring in multiple camera feeds immediately. At the end of a play we can look to six, eight, 10 different angles and pick the right angle to make a decision and not have to wait for the network to show it. We feel like it will make our process very efficient.”

Broadcast technologies

Four players per team will be miced up during the game (most likely the QBs and then a skill player and the defensive play callers) and also Fox will have full access to coaching communications.

One rule difference compared to the NFL is that on kickoffs the players are not allowed to move until the ball is caught by the receiving team. That opens up the opportunity to have a handheld (Rangefinder Camera) on the field when the ball is kicked and then have the cameraman leave the field while the ball is in the air.

The ball

The points of each football are wrapped with ‘X’ marks in white and the team’s primary color. This design allows receivers to track the ball easily.

Patent-pending, “X-Pebble” grip technology will help players control the ball with a feel that enables a tight spin on throws, and also allows ball carriers to enhance their ball security.

 

Technology & My Passion: Bill Wohl and Volunteer Firefighting

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

This time it is Bill Wohl who is 35+ year veteran of corporate communications and branding, with leadership roles at technology brands like SAP, HP & Commvault. Today he is the Head of Brand & Communications at United Rentals, the world's largest equipment rental company with annual revenues of more than US$9.0 billion.

I’ve been a volunteer firefighter for nearly 40 years.  In the United States, the vast majority of fire stations in small and mid-sized towns are staffed by volunteers, in a tradition of community service that dates back to beginnings of our nation.

I serve in a rural and increasingly suburban community some 45 minutes southwest of Philadelphia in Chester County, PA.  The West Grove Fire Company was founded in 1904, and has been serving a 68 square mile area across multiple townships since the days of horse-drawn apparatus.  

Today, a dedicated group of volunteers man three fire stations, with a fleet of fire trucks (three engines/pumpers, one rescue, one ladder, one water tanker, three ambulances, two pickup trucks, a brush truck and several command vehicles).  About 50 “active” volunteers are supplemented by a small group of career staff who man the ambulances and provide crews in the daytime when many of the volunteers are at work.  Are we busy?  Yes!  In 2019, we responded to 651 fire calls and 2442 fire calls.

Since the days of water buckets and horses, innovation and technology have continually redefined the way we operate in West Grove.  Horses gave way to motorized fire trucks (in fact our 1928 Hale pumper was recently restored and remains in our “fleet”), water buckets were replaced by powerful 2000 gallons per minute pumps, and rubberized coats and boots are a thing of the past as full sets of turnout gear strengthened by modern fabrics protect us from 1000+ temperatures and debris (at $1500.00 per person).

Technology continues to shape our operations today, and here are a few examples:

Technology and Safety at the Pump Panel

My role at the WGFC is to drive the fire trucks.  The roles of the driver/operator are varied.  Drive the truck safely to the fire makes sense as the primary role.  But when you are the driver/operator, one of your roles is to assure a safe, continuous flow of water at the right volume and pressure to the fire crews.  This is life and death work – screw that up, and your firefighters can find themselves in a burning building with no water (and that is as bad as it gets).   Operating the pump panel on a modern fire truck can be imposing – multiple valves, input lines and output lines, varied pressures, water supply – all operated by one person and always at an emergency scene with a lot going on.

When I first started, maintaining a constant and appropriate water pressure to the fire was a real balancing act, requiring a juggling of incoming water flow and pressure, outgoing lines (sometimes many different hoses), adjusting the throttle of the fire truck’s engine, and always watching to see if there was adequate water supply.   Changes to the water flow and pressure coming into the truck from a supply source like a hydrant could have an immediate impact on fire hoses inside the burning building, and that meant one hand on the engine throttle, one hand on a small wheel to regulate incoming pressure, and a "third hand" to regulate manually pressure flows to outgoing attack lines.

Good news:  advances in technology mean today’s modern fire pumps can self-regulate pressure flows.  Our trucks feature 2000 gallon per minute water pumps built by Hale.  They come with a modern pressure governor that allows the operator to establish the pressure needed on the fire attack line, and then be freed up to handle other critical tasks.  The pressure governor takes over the work of monitoring incoming and outgoing water flows and pressures, while continuously adjusting the fire truck’s engine speed to maintain a constant set pressure.  Additionally, at major emergencies, it’s not unusual to be managing multiple outgoing hose lines and supply flows – the governor helps the operator balance engine RPM and water pressure even as the situation rapidly changes (for example:  a hoseline team rapidly closes a hose line which creates a pressure spike, or the large supply line suddenly increases in pressure) – the governor quickly assures that the overall “system” is rebalanced to provide stable pressure and flows to all fire crews.  This critical advance in technology frees the operator to assist in other tasks as part of the engine team of four and provides a safety layer too.  Operating a fire pump is never a completely hands-off task, but technology has made it safer and easier.

Mobile Apps Monitor Volunteer Response

One fact of life in a volunteer department:  you never are completely sure which volunteers are going to show up for an emergency at any moment in the day.  Sure, you can use crew scheduling to help.   But at the heart of being a volunteer firefighter is that you come when you can, and emergencies don’t happen on a schedule, they happen at any moment in time.  Volunteers can be at work, out to dinner, sick, or even in the shower.  Multiply that uncertainty across 50-60 people responding to three fire stations, and figuring out who is coming to the fire up until now has been tricky. 

Why is this important?  Well, it takes a crew of four people to properly staff a fire engine (driver, officer, and two firefighters).  So, in a volunteer department, knowing who is responding to the fire house helps determine when an apparatus can respond, and tells the chief officers if there is enough manpower to handle a given emergency.

Well, the guessing is over, as technology steps in to help.   My department uses new technology from IamResponding.com, a cloud-based web technology that provides a platform to help the WGFC respond to emergencies.  This responder tracking system allows volunteers to report that they are responding and keeps track of who is coming.

Here’s how it works:  When an emergency call is dispatched by the 911 center, our volunteers open up their IamResponding app on their mobile phones.  A very simple interface allows us to indicate that we are responding, and to which of our three stations (or, if their role permits, directly to the scene).   Each person’s mobile app also registers the response of all members – allowing everyone to know who is coming.  And, at each of our stations, large monitors also display who is on the way.  That way, when we arrive at the firehouse, a quick glance at the monitor tells us who is on the way.  At my station, I use the app to figure out what crew is coming while I’m sitting in the fire truck, so I know to wait a minute longer for one more firefighter, or start my engine on its response to the fire. 

Fire officers use the app to get a total count of who is coming, and they can make quick decisions about calling for more resources in needed. 

And this great technology does so much more to help us:  Each emergency comes into the app directly from our dispatch center.  So the app provides us with ready access to all of the information that the dispatcher has – location, type of incident, call details and notes that can help us, etc.  IamResponding gives us one touch mapping, which leverages Google mapping with turn by turn instructions to suggest the most direct route to the call (which is helpful to me as the engine driver since we never know where the next emergency will be).  Active maps show us the locations of the closest hydrants for water supply (color coded by flow rate). 

And recent software updates have further extended the value of this powerful tool.  We can now enter locally sourced data into the system, which provides ready access to information unique to a particular address – like homes that have extremely long driveways (so we can be better prepared to handle water supply), or hazard addresses like nursing homes or businesses with potential risks due to materials inside, or solar panels on the roof, etc.

With each member armed with this mobile apps, and live call information displayed in our apparatus bays, the mystery of who is responding is behind us.  And the powerful call information is available to all members of the department, arming everyone with decision-making power that only technology innovation can provide.

Advances in technology are changing the fire service.  Beyond pump governors and mobile responding apps, there are countless ways technologies that help us in the fire service:  Hand held gas meters help us detect dangerous gases; lightweight infrared cameras help us find and rescue victims in burning buildings; and drones are being used to survey large fire scenes from above.  The pace of this innovation continues to increase, making our life saving work safer and easier year by year.  I can’t wait to see what comes next. 

Nanostore

The future is in a Shell gas station in the sleepy Silicon Valley suburb of Campbell, Calif.

Customers who walk into the service station's adjacent convenience store to buy Kettle Chips and Arizona Ice Tees never deal with human cashiers. Instead, technology is the shopkeeper.

The store, owned by the chain Loop, officially opened in December after a few months of testing. AiFi, the startup that created the software for managing the store, is pitching its technology as a way to help retailers remain competitive by converting their brick-and-mortar shops into cashierless markets.

Fortune

 

 

Healthier Homes

Wellness and real estate company Delos has developed a system that calibrates the home environment to support occupants’ health through air filtration, water purification and circadian lighting.

The system known as Darwin is the result of about $100 million in research with doctors, architects and the Mayo Clinic over nearly five years. It is set to be introduced to Sydney properties through a partnership with developer Lateral Estate.

Darwin is an integrated system. Air, water, light and a sleep program work together to enhance living conditions.

A mix of carbon and MERV8 filters remove unwanted extras from the air and water. The air filters team with sensors which monitor pollutant spikes in the home. Poor air quality or even a bad smell will activate the home’s heating ventilation and air conditioning systems.

An exterior air quality monitor also allows users to check what’s happening outside with a smartphone.

Filtered water is delivered from every tap and showerhead.

Realestate.com au

 

 

 

 

 

Retail Reincarnated

Le Tote, which recently bought the ­struggling Lord & Taylor from HBC, opened a pop-up shop for the department store chain in New York City for the holidays, its first Manhattan presence since the store closed in early 2019. Kids’ apparel brand Gymboree, which filed for bankruptcy in early 2019 for the second time in two years, will live on in the form of shops within 200 Children’s Place stores. And Barneys New York, once it is done liquidating its stores, will have a presence at a number of Saks Fifth Avenue stores, including the fifth floor of the chain’s Manhattan flagship.

These cases, along with the recent small-scale comebacks of FAO Schwarz and Toys “R” Us, all show how much life there still is in many storied retail brands, corporate mismanagement and choking debt loads aside. So while the so-called retail apocalypse has claimed a number of chains, many are being welcomed back with open arms by consumers.

Fortune

 

 

 

 

Coca-Cola tries autonomous trucks

The partnership will see Einride commercially operating its transportation system between Coca-Cola European Partners’ warehouse in Jordbro outside Stockholm, and retailer Axfood’s own distribution hub, transporting Coca-Cola brand products to the retailer ahead of sending them off to local retail locations in Sweden.

Techcrunch

 

The Miami skyline keeps improving

Miami's skyline has always been impressive with its Art Deco architecture, the background of the Atlantic, the beaches and the cruise ships. The video below shows the evolution of downtown over the last century.

It will get every more impressive. The Next Miami highlights 20 new buildings coming up in the downtown Miami/Brickell area including the tallest, the Okan tower

 

 

Tech firsts at the Super Bowl

Steaming in 4K. Fox Sports "will produce all its coverage of Super Bowl LIV (Feb. 2, in Miami) in 1080p HDR (high dynamic range), while also offering an upconverted UHD (ultra-high-definition) stream to viewers."

5G coverage. For the first time in Super Bowl history, the stadium and much of the city around it — including the airport and downtown Miami — have been outfitted with 5G Technology

Protection from elements. Unlike the last Super Bowl in the city when rain ruined the experience, this time, a 14-acre canopy, weighing more than 17,000 tons, will provide shade over the stadium seating while leaving the area above the playing field open. The canopy is an engineering feat designed to survive hurricanes that are common in S. Florida.

Here is drone footage of the stadium

 

 

Technology & My Hobby: Bonnie Tinder and the Adventures of Grommet

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

Kicking off this decade's series is Bonnie Tinder. Bonnie is the Founder & CEO of Raven Intel, a peer review site (similar to Yelp! or Glassdoor) for Enterprise Software Consulting.  After spending the past 2 decades in the HR Technology space, she started her business in 2018 to give software customers a way to a well-informed decision in an implementation partner.  Her hobbies include figure-skating, traveling and music. She lives in Chicago with her husband, 14-year-old son and dog, Grommet, who she writes about in this post.

Dogs have always been a part of my life and have brought much joy and adventure,  especially our current dog, Grommet.  Our last dog was my husband’s.  He was a sweet, shepherd-coonhound mix rescue pup that looked like he belonged in the back of a pickup truck.  He adored my husband, and well-- tolerated me.  Several months after he died, it was my turn to pick the next family pet.  As luck would have it, this was right around the time of the Super Bowl, when Budweiser released this ad:

 

That commercial was the beginning and end of my dog research (not just a little ironic given that the company I founded is all about informed-decision making and peer reviews!)  But that commercial pulled at my heartstrings and it was settled—we were going to get a white Labrador retriever and I would train him to be just like the service dogs I had always known labs to be and name him Grommet (a perfect companion name as my son’s name is Wallace. BTW, Brits would spell him Gromit)  Little did I know the adventures we would have in store, and what having this dog would teach us now 6 years later.  Here they are the day we got him.

From the day that Grommet bounded on the scene in June, 2014, things haven’t been the same—quite literally.  The day we brought him home, Grommet’s first order of business was to find a tiny tear in our wallpaper and rip the whole panel down, because, who needs wallpaper?  Then there were shoes, and remote controls and just about anything that could be reached at dog-eye level.  We promptly enrolled in puppy training, then obedience classes, then repeat obedience classes.  I was told by the experts that Grommet was a tough training case that would require a lot of ‘consistency and direction’.  (That is a gross understatement--I think Cesar Millan himself would struggle with Grommet.) 

Technology & Training.  We sought technology to aid in training, and purchased the “SportDOG”, an electronic dog collar and remote, which essentially allows you to send a vibration or electronic beep for a correction in addition to a command.  This worked especially well at first, when we remembered to charge the device and when he was wearing it, or when we were at the lake and wanted him to have a greater range of freedom.  We also found a lot of helpful training tips online—and the dog health forums have been especially helpful to make sure we know what to look out for when Grommet has eaten something (for instance, Googling "Is hair wax harmful to dogs?” and search results have been especially helpful recently.)

He helps remind us that stuff…is just stuff.  Like many dogs, Grommet loves to counter surf for food, chew shoes, leather belts and leashes.  If that were the extent of his appetites, Grommet-proofing our home would be easy.  But with his astute nose and spirited curiosity, pretty much nothing is off limits.  This summer before a birthday party, he found a wrapped children’s gift of Play-Doh I had placed by the door and ate 3 of the 4 containers.  A few weeks ago, I had left a package of 8 candles on the dining room table—and came home to find only 4 ½ of them. I am no detective, but.....

He’s devoured Christmas stockings (full of candy), a teeth whitening kit (including the blue light contraption) and more shoes than I can count.  Originally gift-wrapped for a kid’s birthday party—but Grommet found it first. Notice 3 of the 4 Playdohs were untouched, but the purple was a no-go. Every time (after we are mostly sure he is okay) we get upset, but his big, sad black eyes and remorseful act make it hard to stay angry for too long.  In the end, we’ve realized that the ‘stuff’ is all replaceable. 

Having Grommet has helped us expand our "network".  In addition to his other talents, Grommet figured a way to break through our fence into our neighbor’s yard, then into their house via their dog door.  There was nothing like getting a ring at the door from my neighbor bringing him home after he had eaten their dog’s food--in their house!  (When we were telling that story at our neighborhood Christmas party this year, another neighbor told us that Grommet had also made his way into their home as well!)  Since then, we’ve gotten a new wrought iron fence and he hasn’t escaped since (fingers crossed.)

Grommet is a curious and energetic animal.  In his first 2 years, I never saw him sleep.  Add to that, his insatiable love of carbs and wanting to retrieve everything--and it’s about like having a pet racoon in the house.  We hoped that his ‘puppy’ stage would end at age 2, or when he was neutered.  Not so.  At 6, he’s just as crazy.  But, his antics provide an endless supply of entertainment for our neighborhood and my Facebook feed, and as my husband always says—‘he keeps us grounded.’  Anytime we start to take ourselves too seriously, his unrelenting, magnetic white dog hair all over our clothes helps us keep any ego in check.

He’s taught us to take a break from working.  A year and a half ago I started my own business, which meant many hours working from my office in the guest room, and the local cable provider as my IT Department.  When the internet inexplicably went down and no amount of resetting the router would restore the connection, we were stumped.  The mystery was quickly solved after a trip outside and seeing the series of muddy holes in the backyard.  Grommet had decided to dig up the buried cable and chew through it, which left us off-the-grid for a week.  (It is bad enough getting Comcast out when it’s their issue, much less when your dog has chewed through the wires!)  Between needing regular walks and attention, he makes sure that we don’t sit for too long (or spend too much time on the internet.)

He’s taught us that the small things are the big things.  Grommet has been an expensive dog, but has taught us that the best parts of our lives don’t cost anything.  It’s the simple dinners at home (reminding him not to beg at the table), and the car rides with the top down, and trips to the lakefront--even the daily walks around the block in the Chicago winter that have you complaining the whole time--that make up the best part of our lives. 

Having a dog like Grommet reminds us that despite the frustrations (and chewed up shoes and internet cables) that we need to be loyal to our family and friends, forgive-and-forget and enjoy their company for all the time we have.  (And, maybe that we need to re-enroll in dog obedience classes.)

Car display screens keep getting bigger

The trend toward making car owners feel like they’re at a drive-in theater has been going on for years, best exemplified by Tesla, whose Model 3 sedan has a 15-inch center screen that controls many functions that used to require buttons. In the smartphone era, people have been trained to expect screens that are not just big but regularly updated and easy to use. (Bringing a bazooka to this knife fight is Chinese electric-car startup Byton, whose M-Byte SUV will come with a four-foot screen.)

“We know the benchmark is cellphones,” says Gary Jablonski, the chief engineer who runs Ford’s infotainment efforts. That’s why, along with screens that stretch farther, Ford is also launching Sync 4. The latest generation of its infotainment system will offer the kinds of features you’ve come to expect from the computer in your pocket. The cloud-connected navigation system will liberate users from constrained libraries of points of interest, allowing them to search the map for things like their doctor’s office. Traffic data will be more detailed and up to date.

Wired

This video has the Byton with the massive display

 

The future of insurance claims

For many people, filing insurance claims means tedious paperwork and stressful phone calls. It doesn’t have to be that way—and, soon, it won’t. The Next Normal looks at how telematics and artificial intelligence will enable faster, easier claims.

McKinsey

"Blue energy"

A new membrane could unlock the potential of “blue energy,” which uses chemical differences between fresh- and saltwater to generate electricity. If researchers can scale up the postage stamp–size membrane in an affordable fashion, it could provide carbon-free power to millions of people in coastal nations where freshwater rivers meet the sea.

“It’s impressive,” says Hyung Gyu Park, a mechanical engineer at Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea who wasn’t involved with the work. “Our field has waited for this success for many years.”

Blue energy’s promise stems from its scale: Rivers dump some 37,000 cubic kilometers of freshwater into the oceans every year. This intersection between fresh- and saltwater creates the potential to generate lots of electricity—2.6 terawatts, according to one recent estimate, roughly the amount that can be generated by 2000 nuclear power plants.

Science Magazine

 

 

 

The Clydesdales - not just for the Super Bowl

The Budweiser Clydesdales commercials are usually a hit even in the line up which wows every Super Bowl. MarketingDive is keeping track of all the ads likely to be on the game on Sunday and not sure if the Clydesdales will feature this year.

 

However, my town has no reason to whine. Last week, in the run up to our annual Gasparilla Pirate invasion, the horses graced several events courtesy of https://pepindistributing.com/world-famous-budweiser-clydesdales-to-appear-in-tampa-for-gasparilla-pirate-fest/ which also provided some fun facts about the horses

 

“Canadians of Scottish descent brought the first Clydesdales to America in the mid-1800’s. Today, the giant draft horses are used primarily for breeding and show.

Horses chosen for the Budweiser Clydesdale hitch must be at least three years of age, stand approximately 18 hands – or six feet – at the shoulder, weigh an average of 2,000 pounds, must be bay in color, have four white legs, and a blaze of white on the face and black mane and tail.  A gentle temperament is very important as hitch horses meet millions of people each year.

A single Clydesdale hitch horse will consume as much as 20-25 quarts of feed, 40-50 pounds of hay and 30 gallons of water per day. Each hitch travels with a Dalmatian.  In the early days of brewing, Dalmatians were bred and trained to protect the horses and guard the wagon when the driver went inside to make deliveries.”

BTW, this Budweiser Clydesdale commercial was one of the highest rated ever

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad

NBCUniversal's One advertising platform

In its biggest step yet to streamline advertising buys across all of its various platforms, NBCUniversal will soon unite its linear and digital inventory via a single tool.

The new offering, One Platform, will enable NBCUniversal to sell its ad inventory across all screens, the company said Tuesday at CES. Previously, it used separate tools to transact linear and digital advertising.

It will take NBCU three years to complete the new platform, but the company said an iteration of One Platform will be up and running in time for this year’s upfront.

Adweek

 

New batch of Technology and my Hobby/Passion guest columns

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

I am kicking off, starting next Saturday, one for the start of our new decade. I will run one every weekend for the next 3-4 months. The first ten will cover animal rescue, architectural design, biking, equestrian interests, flying, ice skating, nature treks, Pokémon Go, volunteer firefighting and quilting. Encouragingly, the majority of contributors to this first batch are ladies. 

 

Do you have an interesting hobby or passion? Drop me a note and I will help you craft the column. It will allow you to share with the world something positive and uplifting and deepen your passion for something you already love!

Disrupting the Cow?

This is the result of rapid advances in precision biology that have allowed us to make huge strides in precision fermentation, a process that allows us to program microorganisms to produce almost any complex organic molecule.

These advances are now being combined with an entirely new model of production we call Food-as-Software, in which individual molecules engineered by scientists are uploaded to databases – molecular cookbooks that food engineers anywhere in the world can use to design products in the same way that software developers design apps. This model ensures constant iteration so that products improve rapidly, with each version superior and cheaper than the last. It also ensures a production system that is completely decentralized and much more stable and resilient than industrial animal agriculture, with fermentation farms located in or close to towns and cities.

ThinkX

 

 

 

"Digital teleportation"

Proponents of the technology, which some call “live delivery,” believe that in the coming years, a mix of virtual reality, fast wireless networks and machines like drones and rovers will allow people to immerse themselves in actual, far-flung environments—in real time. “Live delivery is a new type of tool that will reinvent the way we experience the world, that will allow us to be on the spot when things are happening,” said Marc Carrel-Billiard, senior managing director at Accenture Labs, who advises businesses on VR and augmented reality.

While VR shows prerecorded scenes, live VR, which is starting to show up in classrooms and operating rooms, allows users to experience what is happening in situ. Companies are already starting to pair simplified versions of live VR with drones to give users a sense of being in another place.

WSJ

 

 

Forget national airline. How about a national space agency?

Santa Maria is the southernmost island of the Azores archipelago, about 850 miles west of Portugal. Its serene weather, white sandy beaches, and seclusion have made it a peaceful destination for tourists. That’s about to change.

Over the next few decades, Portugal plans to convert this tiny piece of land surrounded by ocean into one of the world’s busiest spaceports. The country wants rocket launches of satellites and spacecraft to occur with a frequency rivaling that of planes taking off from a small airport. It wants to attract international customers who will get involved in Earth observation and remote sensing, telecommunications, space tourism, and even asteroid mining.

And Portugal is not alone in venturing into the space economy in this way. No fewer than 13 countries have established brand-new space agencies in just the past decade, the majority of them in the last five years. Aiming to fill lucrative niches that NASA and the other space behemoths have overlooked, these agencies from unlikely places are making strong plays at partnering with a commercial sector that’s hungry to stake claims in the expanding space economy. The age of the small space agency is here.

MIT Technology Review

 

Luxembourg is making a bid for space mining

 

 

Smart shopping carts

These companies have added cameras and sensors to the carts, and are using AI to tell what you've placed in them. A built-in scale weighs items, in case you have to pay by the pound for an item. Customers pay by entering a credit card, or by using Apple Pay or Google Pay.

When a customer exits the store, a green light on the shopping cart indicates that their order is complete, and they're charged. If something goes wrong, the light turns red, and a store employee is summoned.

CNN

Here is one called Caper

Building a "hurricane proof" island

The Climate Resilience Execution Agency of Dominica (CREAD) has attempted to climate-proof as many aspects of life as possible: healthcare, transportation, energy and agriculture. Efforts include the banning of plastic on the island (because of infrastructure problems with collecting trash and bringing it to a landfill).

If all goes according to plan, Dominica will be able to bounce back from the next inevitable hurricane in a matter of weeks rather than years.

Travel and Leisure

Despite Dominica’s ambitions, the first climate-resilient island may actually be 200 miles away in the French West Indies. “St. Barts was as hurricane-proof as any island could be,” says Nils Dufau, president of Tourisme de St. Barts. Because of the island’s wealth, strict building codes, and smart preventive strategies, St. Barts came through the storms relatively unscathed. (The main cause of damage—and lingering hotel closures—was flooding.) “Our electric grid was already three-quarters underground, and now we’re accelerating the rest,” Dufau says. “It means most of the island didn’t lose power—and for those who did, it wasn’t for long.” St. Barts is now testing marine barriers, watertight doorways, and “wash-through channels” that protect building foundations, all to ease flood damage from storms.

Bloomberg

Walmart's Alphabot

The technology was developed solely for Walmart by a start-up based in Massachusetts called Alert Innovation. The two have been working together since 2016.

Alphabot itself spans about 8,000 square feet and operates inside a roughly 20,000-square-foot space that looks like a mini warehouse and has been built onto the back of Walmart’s Salem store. It took roughly two years to construct. Walmart isn’t disclosing the cost of this technology or of the construction.

Alphabot uses autonomous carts to retrieve the shelf-stable foods, refrigerated items and frozen goods that people are ordering online. It can hold upward of 20,000 items, Walmart said. And the retailer is stocking its most popular grocery items — like cereals, frozen vegetables and peanut butters — there.

Once the carts have the items they’re looking for, the Alphabot system sends them to designated work stations, where a Walmart employee will then check the items to ensure the order is accurate, bag everything and finish the delivery.

Walmart says this cuts time compared with how the grocery picking and packing has traditionally been done. As it stands in all other Walmart stores today, workers must walk around the sales floor and find the items themselves. Walmart says workers in Salem will continue to pick produce and other “fresh” items by hand, however, as those goods need to be checked for brown spots or other damage.

CNBC

 

 

 

Who needs Amazon Fulfillment?

Businesses including Shopify, Wix.com and Squarespace help sellers set up digital stores and process payments. A growing lineup of new and established software firms offer tailored technology to tell retailers where to keep their inventory.

Operators like ShipBob (in video) and Quiet Logistics fulfill orders for direct-to-consumer brands through their own warehouses that help sellers put their inventory closer to customers for faster shipping, To help companies match Amazon’s growing network of distribution centers, on-demand warehousing startups such as Flowspace Inc. and Flexe Inc. connect retailers to warehouses with space to share. Robotics companies like Massachusetts-based 6 River Systems and Singapore-based GreyOrange Pte. supply automation to mimic Amazon’s robot-heavy handling while software companies such as Shippo, ShipHawk and ShipHero help merchants book shipments and track order deliveries.

WSJ

 

 

 

 

The Human Rainbow

How many colors are there in the human rainbow? By Angélica Dass’s count, at least 4,000. Since 2012, the Brazilian artist has been photographing people of every color and matching each subject’s skin tone to hues from the Pantone printing color chart to codify a unique chromatic inventory.

The project, titled “Humanæ,” has traveled the world and is featured in this month’s issue of National Geographic, which focuses on the idea of race as a social construct, rather than a biological one. Dass also gave a 2016 TED Talk on the subject (see below)

Artnet

 

The New Generation Y - the "Yold"

One might therefore expect peak retirement for baby-boomers in the coming years—except that they are not retiring. By continuing to work, and staying socially engaged, the boomers, in their new guise as the young old, will change the world, as they have done several times before at different stages of their lives.

The yold are more numerous, healthier and wealthier than previous generations of seniors. There will be 134m 65- to 74-year-olds in rich countries in 2020 (11% of the population), up from 99m (8%) in 2000. That is the fastest rate of growth of any large age group. Health worsens with age, but the yold are resisting the decline better than most: of the 3.7 years of increased life expectancy in rich countries between 2000 and 2015, says the World Health Organisation, 3.2 years were enjoyed in good health. The yold are also better off: between 1989 and 2013, the median wealth of families headed by someone over 62 in America rose by 40% to $210,000, while the wealth of all other age groups declined.

The Economist

An interesting documentary on the aging population in Japan which has encountered the "yold" phenomenon earlier than many other societies.

Sony's electric concept car

Called the Sony Vision-S, it’s an electric concept sedan that is meant to showcase the Japanese tech conglomerate’s many different strengths, from entertainment products to camera sensors and more.

In fact, the Vision-S features 33 different sensors inside and outside of the car, multiple widescreen displays, 360 audio, and always-on connectivity, with some pieces coming from industry players like BlackBerry and Bosch. It’s also powered by a “newly-designed EV platform” — which appears to have been engineered by automotive supplier Magna — that Sony says will be able to power other vehicle types, like SUVs.

The Verge

 

Smart swim goggles

Typically, swim monitors reside on your wrist. An Apple Watch will track your performance, as will other wearables, like a Garmin watch. But a new gadget from a Vancouver, Canada company called Form does it differently: with a head-up display right in your goggles.

Slip them on, and simple yellow, pixelated text appears in front of one of your eyes, superimposed over the scene before you. Whether you’re underwater or turning your head for a breath of air, the information floats there. Two buttons on the side let you take actions like selecting the pool size, or actually starting the swim. While you’re swimming, the display allows you to see information like how far how you’ve been going and how many lengths you’ve completed. A companion app provides a place to make more granular changes and see the full results of your swim afterwards.

Popular Science

 

 

 

 

Open Ocean drones

(Open Ocean) drones can be used to collect all kinds of ocean and environmental data. They’re solar-powered, and can reportedly stay on the ocean for up to a year, continuously collecting data, and send it to a user in real time using satellite and other communication systems.

That translates to precise information on marine weather conditions and more accurate forecasts, which can help optimize ship routing, cut fuel use and in turn reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The boats are equipped with 360-degree cameras, ship-tracking intelligence known as AIS and remote-sensing LIDAR (which uses lasers).

“This winter, we’ll conduct sea trials during big winter storms, where our boats could encounter waves that are 50 feet or larger,” says CEO Julie Angus. 

“Our boat will repeatedly capsize during these conditions, but its self-righting design will enable it to continue operating.

Forbes

 

 

 

 

Space solar power

In October, the Air Force Research Lab announced a $100 million program to develop hardware for a solar power satellite. It’s an important first step toward the first demonstration of space solar power in orbit, and Mankins says it could help solve what he sees as space solar power’s biggest problem: public perception. The technology has always seemed like a pie-in-the-sky idea, and the cost of setting up a solar array on Earth is plummeting. But space solar power has unique benefits, chief among them the availability of solar energy around the clock regardless of the weather or time of day.

It can also provide renewable energy to remote locations, such as forward operating bases for the military. And at a time when wildfires have forced the utility PG&E to kill power for thousands of California residents on multiple occasions, having a way to provide renewable energy through the clouds and smoke doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

Wired

watch this hour long presentation starting around 3.30 on the concept.

 

 

 

UPS SMART hub

Fortune on the 1.2m sq ft UPS Southeast Metropolitan Automated Routing Terminal (SMART) in Atlanta

The scanning tunnel, it turns out, isn’t really a tunnel: It’s a metal frame the size of a small SUV. The frame holds six high-speed cameras, made by Italian automation specialist Datalogic, that perch over, next to, and underneath the line. Via a small gap in the conveyor belt and a system of carefully placed bright red lights and mirrors, the cameras snap pictures in a fraction of a second of all six sides of every box, without slowing their flow. An image-processing system instantly decodes the destination information inscribed on each box’s label and decides which of more than 300 exit bays in the facility has the correct departing truck to take the box on the next part of its journey, whether to a nearby home or business, or to another city, state, or country.

As packages zip out of the scanner, each is joined by a shadow companion moving at the same speed along the side of the conveyor. They take the form of little black rectangles—UPS calls them “shoes,” and they’re about that size. Each package gets accompanied by a pair, or a bunch, depending on its size and weight. These are some smart shoes, though: They whiz down the line, escorting a box, and then, just when the box is passing its correct “off-ramp,” the exit chute to a smaller belt that will take it to the appropriate departing truck, they pop out and push the box down that chute. The shove happens so fast, you can miss it if you blink. The boxes seem to fly about by magic—Harry Potter minus the wand. Soon the box is on a new truck and off to a customer—wrapping up a ritual that takes place hundreds of thousands of times a day.

UPS SMART Hub from Select Fulton on Vimeo.

Smart pajamas

In her lab, Andrew is capitalizing on this softness to develop pajamas that monitor your sleep posture. It’s not as random as it sounds—bad sleep posture has been linked to chronic spinal pain, and there’s not currently a good way for doctors to monitor it over time. Andrew’s smart pajamas have five strategically placed RVD-based pressure sensors that track heart rate, breathing rate, and body position throughout the night. They’re all connected to a microprocessor hidden in a button that beams data to a receiver via Bluetooth.

Andrew is also testing the same pajamas with an REM sleep-sensing mask. Currently, when a doctor wants to diagnose sleep apnea or investigate insomnia, the patient has to travel to a sleep center, be wired to monitoring machines, and then try to fall asleep while a technician watches them over video. Andrew hopes her pajamas will bring sleep studies into a patient’s home, allowing doctors to collect data remotely while the patient sleeps in familiar surroundings.

Wired

Tech to help with Chunyun - the world's largest annual human migration

From CNN Travel

Considered the largest human migration on the planet, Chunyun -- the 40-day period when Chinese people head home to celebrate the Lunar New Year Spring Festival with their families -- officially began on January 10 and will end on February 18. Some 3 billion trips are expected to be made during the 2020 Chunyun period, a slight increase from last year's figure (2.99 billion trips).

New tech will play a part in easing congestion at train stations, highways and airports. More than 1,000 train stations in the country have been installed with e-ticket check-in system to speed up ticketing procedures. Last year also saw the opening of the long-awaited Beijing Daxing International Airport. The Civil Aviation Administration of China estimated that the new airport in the capital city will ferry 190 million passengers during the Lunar New Year period, with 15% more flights than usual. In addition to featuring technology to help flying in low visibility, to reduce the chances of flight delays during adverse weather conditions, Daxing International Airport has also adopted facial recognition and automated technologies to increase efficiency.

Airports around China have scheduled at least 17,000 flights every day, 13.3% higher than last year, to deal with the traffic. Wang Yang, chief engineer of the Ministry of Transport, said that about 790,000 buses and 19,000 boats will be utilized to ferry home-comers. Some 330,000 kilometers of highway has also been built and expanded. Shortly before the Spring Festival rush, the country implemented an electronic collection system at all the toll booths at provincial borders.

a video from last year's travel

 

 

 

 

Women flock to franchising

As of May, women own or co-own 35% of the franchise outlets in the U.S.—around 265,000—according to the Franchise Business Review research firm. That represents outlet growth of 24% from a decade earlier, and in the two years ended in May, 41% of new franchise outlets opened have been owned or co-owned by women. And in some sectors, such as interior decorating, they far outnumber their male counterparts.

WSJ

Popular industries for women-owned franchises are travel and hospitality, child and senior-care services and advertising and sales, per Franchise Business Review. The magazine named as the top five franchises for women in its 2019 list of the top 50 franchises for women Kona Ice, a mobile, Hawaiian-style shaved ice franchise; Wild Birds Unlimited, a retail store that specializes in bird feeding supplies; Keller Williams real estate; MaidPro cleaning and maintenance service; and NextHome real estate.

BizJournals

Image Credit: WSJ

The new walkie-talkie

Chuang says Relay has “tens of thousands of customers” for the family version, but it turns out that the same properties that made Relay work for kids—durability, simplicity, cost-effectiveness—also appealed to businesses. While walkie-talkie apps do exist for smartphones, the touchscreen requires “active workers”—that is, those in fields like construction and hospitality—to stop looking at what they’re doing. Smartphones would also invite distraction from social media and other apps.

Fast Company

The Coke Freestyle machine evolves

I first wrote about the Coke Freestyle machine in 2009. I was at Firehouse Subs last week picking up a sandwich for my son and noticed a newer version of the machine, the 9100. Firehouse is a charter customer and has over 1,000 machines in its stores nationwide.

You can now communicate with the machine via bluetooth on a mobile app. An improved content management system allows Coca-Cola to release “digital recipes” over the air, right to the dispenser, surprising Firehouse guests with unique drink offerings like Team USA custom mixes, Fanta Halloween and Coca-Cola Holiday mixes. New brand choices include Orange Vanilla Coke and Sprite Lymonade, plus limited-time flavors of Minute Maid Lemonade. The machine has microphones, speakers, optical sensors and a new equipment option that will eventually support the addition of drink categories not available on Freestyle today, such as teas and new varieties of juices.

 

 

 

 

CES: Where are the tech companies?

In The New Technology Elite I wrote

"At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early 2011, I got a clear answer to the first question. While the big excitement during the show was around the tens of new tablets expected to be rolled out later in the year, I observed companies from just about every industry – from Walgreens, the pharmacy chain to Nike, the shoe company to Ford, the auto company all were showing off technology enabled “smart” products for the new tech savvy consumer.

It is a really exciting time for many of these companies. For too long IT has been an expensive and low payback back office investment. Now technology in their products is allowing them to generate revenue and growth. Technology is fun - and profitable again."

We have gone much further in the decade since

MarketWatch writes about CES which starts today in Las Vegas

"This change has been happening for years — the name was changed from the Consumer Electronics Show to just CES in 2016 — but for an indication of how much has changed in just the past year, look at the keynote lineup. In 2019, executives from blue-chip tech giant International Business Machines Corp. IBM and chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMDdelivered the top keynote speeches. In their place this year are Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL, Daimler-Benz, Unilever ULVR, and startups like Impossible Foods and Quibi."

Of course there will be plenty from tech vendors - here are some in video below

2020: Megatends for the decade

From the always positive futurist Peter Diamandis

In the decade ahead, waves of exponential technological advancements are stacking atop one another, eclipsing decades of breakthroughs in scale and impact.

Emerging from these waves are 20 “Metatrends,” likely to revolutionize entire industries (old and new), redefine tomorrow's generation of businesses and contemporary challenges, and transform our livelihoods from the bottom-up.

Among these metatrends are augmented human longevity, the surging smart economy, AI-human collaboration, urbanized cellular agriculture, and high-bandwidth brain-computer interfaces, just to name a few.

It is here that master entrepreneurs and their teams must see beyond the immediate implications of a given technology, capturing second-order, Google-sized business opportunities on the horizon.

Welcome to a new decade of runaway technological booms, historic watershed moments, and extraordinary abundance.

Medellin: World's "Smartest City"

Think of a gondola suspended under a cable, floating high off the ground as it hauls a cabin full of passengers up a long, steep mountain slope. To most people, the image would suggest ski resorts and pricey vacations. To the people who live in the poor mountainside communities once known as favelas at the edges of Medellín, Colombia, the gondola system is a lifeline, and a powerful symbol of an extraordinary urban transformation led by technology and data.

The technology that helped save Medellín is not what you'd see in San Francisco, Boston or Singapore—fleets of driverless cars, big tech companies and artificial intelligence. It is about gathering data to make informed decisions on how to deploy technology where it has the most impact. And it is about establishing a constituency for change that transcends wealth and class. When experts get together to discuss the path to smarter cities, Medellín often comes up as a standard against which any city's vision for transformation should be measured—including the judges of Newsweek's Momentum Awards.

Here is another perspective