Archives For Google

Patent to watch: Google’s mixed reality headset

October 25, 2016 — Leave a comment

Google says this isn’t for consumer release, but they are hot on the heels of Microsoft’s Hololens and Magic Leap in augmented reality/mixed reality visors….

“Google’s invention focuses on a system for providing a virtual reality (VR) space or headset that has the ability to interact with an Android smartphone for game play and other needed controls. The mobile computing device can be configured to execute a VR application, and provide content for display on the screen of the VR headset in the VR space.”

“The VR headset can further include a position detection device configured to determine a position of the mobile computing device. The position detection device can be a camera.”

Source: Google is working on a mixed reality headset, a new patent reveals

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In augmented reality, MN ,
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Eric Schmidt on Smarter Music…

September 14, 2015 — Leave a comment

In the next generation of software, machine learning won’t just be an add-on that improves performance a few percentage points; it will really replace traditional approaches.

To give just one example: a decade ago, to launch a digital music service, you probably would have enlisted a handful of elite tastemakers to pick the hottest new music. Today, you’re much better off building a smart system that can learn from the real world – what actual listeners are most likely to like next – and help you predict who and where the next Adele might be.

As a bonus, it’s a much less elitist taste-making process – much more democratic – allowing everyone to discover the next big star through our own collective tastes and not through the individual preferences of a select few.

Source: Eric Schmidt on Smarter Music… Intelligent machines: Making AI work in the real world – BBC News

In Music , ,
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Super Mario Bros, as dreamed by a computer

August 6, 2015 — Leave a comment

Our spaceLab team is having fun with Artificial Neural Networks…

via Do Computers Dream? | spaceLab.

In Artificial Intelligence ,
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Alfred Spector on How Google Does Fundamental Research Without a Separate Research Lab

March 20, 2014 — Leave a comment

If you dig Brian Eno’s concept of Scenius, you’ll surely appreciate Google’s approach to innovation in 2014 by tapping into many minds from a like-minded community and fostering creativity by matching “thinkers” with the “doers.”

Last summer it was widely reported Google was shifting away from the 20 percent time approach, but it appears they are instead embedding people working on fundamental research into the core business… which “makes it possible for Google to encourage creative contributions from workers who would typically be far removed from any kind of research and development.”

“There doesn’t need to be a protective shell around our researchers where they think great thoughts,” says [Alfred Spector] Spector.

“It’s a collaborative activity across the organization; talent is distributed everywhere.”

via Alfred Spector, How Google Does Fundamental Research Without a Separate Research Lab | MIT Technology Review.

What is your organization doing to foster innovation, creativity and collaboration across its scenius?

In Creativity and Innovation, Quotables , ,
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Google goes public on smart contact lens project

January 16, 2014 — Leave a comment

Despite the buzz at CES about smart contacts that work in concert with glasses to project images, Google now announces that it is expanding from Glass into a broader approach to smart lens capabilities — with contacts.

Except this isn’t for taking pictures and accessing the anytime web like Glass. It’s more of a wearable sensor approach to glucose management for diabetes patients. Pretty fantastic.

We’re now testing a smart contact lens that’s built to measure glucose levels in tears using a tiny wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor that are embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material. We’re testing prototypes that can generate a reading once per second. We’re also investigating the potential for this to serve as an early warning for the wearer, so we’re exploring integrating tiny LED lights that could light up to indicate that glucose levels have crossed above or below certain thresholds. It’s still early days for this technology, but we’ve completed multiple clinical research studies which are helping to refine our prototype. We hope this could someday lead to a new way for people with diabetes to manage their disease.

via Official Blog: Introducing our smart contact lens project.

In Wearable Technology , , ,
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Is your automated home a Mac or a PC?

January 13, 2014 — Leave a comment

nestAs Google buys Nest today, it increases the pressure for consumers to decide what type of operating system they want their home to run. And what types of off-the-shelf and add-on devices they should buy.

Is your connected home a Mac or a PC? Apple or Android? The internet of things works best when the things can talk to each other, and that requires a consolidated operating system.

I specifically was giving a home security company a bad time about this at CES last week. I want my furnace, smoke detector, security system, Dropcam, doorbell, refrigerator, oven, phone, cable and internet provider to all speak to each other.

But right now I’m locked into contracts with a handful of service providers who do not sell the best and most innovative connected home products. And of course, they don’t talk to each other. Because that’s not something expected, until recently.

The new situation is quite literally the Mac vs. PC and Apple vs. Android wars, except this time the battle has moved from laptops and phones to your home.

The dominant players will not necessarily be first to market, but instead disrupt traditional thinking and look to scoop up the innovators who are solving problems outside the legacy infrastructure and bureaucracy that has held back the legacy home product companies.

Naysayers will point out that an internet outage will create new headaches and hurdles for connected home users. And they’re correct. And that won’t stop consumers from installing value-adding technology to their home.

Kudos to Nest and Google. Now where’s my tweeting ice maker?

In CES, Connected Home , , ,
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Google, the cybernetic friend you won’t know you need until it becomes an essential part of your life

January 6, 2013 — Leave a comment

Notice how they capitalize the “i” in It?

Eventually Google will understand why users are searching for information and provide them with answers they didn’t even know they needed….This friend of yours, this cybernetic friend, that knows that you that have certain questions about certain health issues or business strategies. And, It can then be canvassing all the new information that comes out in the world every minute and then bring things to your attention without you asking about them

—Google’s New Director Of Engineering, Ray Kurzweil, Is Building Your ‘Cybernetic Friend’

In Technology ,
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