2017 June 08 | AIVAnet

8

Jun

Remember that ‘robotic furniture’ we were promised? It’s about to hit the market

Why it matters to you

Here’s a clever way to make your small apartment feel a lot bigger.

It’s no fun living in a cramped apartment, but what if you could make it feel considerably larger with the press of a button?

The remarkable “robotic furniture” system, designed by MIT Media Lab spinoff Ori in partnership with Swiss designer Yves Behar, incorporates an automated system that lets you quickly transform the “giant closet” for different uses, including a work space, dining table, bed, entertainment center, and storage space.

The system first came to our attention in 2014 when it was known as CityHome, while the team released a refined version last year.

The exciting news is that it’s now ready for pre-order, with the initial production run of 1,200 units heading to major cities across the United States, among them New York City, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston. Delivery is expected to begin toward the end of 2017, though for now only property developers can purchase the system.

So you what do you get for the $10,000 that the system is thought to cost? Well, it’s essentially a giant, highly functional wooden box. You control it either via a smartphone app, the small control panel fixed to the unit, or by calling out instructions to smart speakers such as the Amazon Echo — “Alexa, tell Ori to open my bed.”

It’s a clever and rather cool way to make the best use of space in a small apartment, with the unit even able to move across the room to create a bedroom, living room, or work area. When you start your day, your bed slides into the bottom of the unit, freeing up lots of space in the process. The press of a button will then shift the unit slowly along, creating a larger space around your sofa and TV to make a living room. You can work at a desk that emerges from inside. You can display stuff on it, store stuff in it, and hang stuff on it. And when your day’s done, your bed — in the same messy state that you left it in that morning — slides back out.

The unit comes in two sizes — “full” for a full-size bed and “queen” for a smaller bed — and is flat-packed and assembled on site. It can be installed in both existing buildings and new projects, and it’s electric powered so just plug it in and you’re good to go.

Speaking about the unique system last year, Yves Behar said, “Many people living in urban environments no longer have the luxury of space, or they are choosing to live in a smaller footprint.

“What Ori does is to maximize the functionality of a space; with robotic technology it creates a beautiful and transformative living and working environment that is unlike anything the world has seen.”

8

Jun

The quantified kid: Wearables for children are on the rise, for better and worse

Why it matters to you

Kid-focused wearable tech could potentially save lives. But are we ready to track our children yet?

Anyone with kids will be uncomfortably familiar with the feeling of helplessness that comes from them getting sick, especially when we’re unsure exactly what the root cause is. That’s what CJ Swarmy experienced when his eldest son Eashan became unwell a couple of years back.

“He’s a typical, active, healthy child who loves to run around, get in trouble, and is especially fond of playing at the Golden Gate Park,” Swarmy told Digital Trends. “One day after one of our play trips, Eashan fell sick, getting a high fever. The next day, when we took him to the doctor we discovered that he had heat exhaustion and a bit of dehydration. Naturally I was scared. I’m a very diligent parent, but I hadn’t seen this coming.”

Fortunately, like so many of these instances, Eashan turned out to be just fine. After the initial scare, he returned to his normal self and, a few days later, didn’t even remember being sick. But Swarmy did experience lasting effects. Feeling shaken by the incident — but also in a position to help change things — Swarmy went away and designed a wearable device to help parents keep closer tabs on their children.

The resulting product, launched by Swarmy’s company Good Parents Inc., is a smart sensor-filled wrist-worn wearable, designed for kids aged 3-10 years old. Currently available for pre-order on Kickstarter, its aim is to monitor key biometrics and detect unusual patterns, so that parents and guardians can use the insights to take effective action in matters concerning their kids’ health and wellbeing.

Features of Kiddo include the monitoring of biometrics such as skin temperature, heart rate, sleep, activity and perspiration levels, as well as keeping track of a child’s nutrition. It uses machine learning technology to take that information and learn what is normal for your kid. If a major change is detected, parents receive a mobile app notification, letting them know their child may be sick, stressed, eating badly, or similar. It can also suggest actions that parents may take to alleviate the symptoms. It even lets parents and children set goals designed to encourage healthy habits, with a rewards-based system that’s triggered when goals are reached.

Kiddo isn’t the only wearable device to be aimed at youngsters, either. While Kiddo is smarter than most, thanks to its use of artificial intelligence, there is a cottage industry of devices focused on tracking children. These include gadgets like the Tinitell, a kids GPS tracker with live map monitoring, which also doubles as a water-resistant, voice-recognition wrist phone.

The rise of the technologies offer some exciting potential solutions, but also raises challenges. Like the age of a child when they get their first smartphone, or the amount of screen time they’re allowed, how young is too young for a wearable device? And do things change if it’s in the interests of their health — or does this come under the same “freedom through surveillance” banner that makes NSA tracking objectionable to many?

The use of technology with kids remains a contentious issue. For example, the late Steve Jobs — an influential leading figures in the high tech world, by any definition — previously spoke out about his refusal to let his kids get hooked on tech.

Back in 2010, one year before his tragic death at the age of 56, Jobs was asked by New York Times writer Nick Bilton what his kids thought of the iPad, which had just launched to great acclaim. Jobs told the stunned Bilton that his kids didn’t have an opinion on it, because they’d not yet tried it. “We limit how much technology our kids use at home,” he said. Jobs’ official biographer Walter Isaacson backed up the story: “Every evening Steve made a point of having dinner at the big long table in their kitchen, discussing books and history and a variety of things,” he said. “No one ever pulled out an iPad or computer. The kids did not seem addicted at all to devices.”

There is, of course, a difference between a device like an iPad and a wearable. One involves screen time and active participation from the user, while the other is designed to operate almost invisibly in the background; requiring virtually no involvement from the person using it. But both instill an early reliance on technology, and use of self-tracking with the understanding that one’s behavior is being measured and quantified by both machines and other users. Such technology could, in fact, be a negative for both parents and kids. It ties into the phenomenon of “helicopter parents” as described in Sherry Turkle’s 2011 book Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology And Less From One Another.

“[Helicopter parents] hail from a generation that does not want to repeat the mistakes of its parents (permitting too much independence too soon) and so hover over their children’s lives,” Turkle writes. Turkle describes, not altogether positively, a generation of kids frequently coming from broken families, who have grown up with technologies like metal detectors as standard at schools and airports. “They tend not to assume safe passage,” Turkle writes, and notes that connected devices become “amulet[s] emblematic of safety.”

It’s a fair concern to raise. Today’s generation of wearable-sporting kids will go on to live in a world in which such devices are ubiquitous, and where machine learning-assisted surveillance in smart homes, smart cities, and smart workplaces is pervasive. The question is: what age is too young?

It’s a question that parents and families will have to discuss. In terms of keeping children safe, smart wearables like Kiddo share a lot in common with cellphones: another device which causes plenty of discussion as to the right age to give children. Like phones, smart wearables will provide a link between parent and child; providing invaluable peace of mind to both parties. Wearable devices also don’t come with the more obvious downsides of cellphones, such as the possibility of grooming or sexting (although possible hacking is certainly a concern.)

But some parents may be uncomfortable with the idea of the quantified kid: a child whose data is being monitored, analyzed, and sliced and diced at a time in their life when they should just be left to be kids. It’s part of a much broader topic that will only become more pressing as today’s generation of kids grows into tweens, teens, and beyond.

What’s not up for questioning is whether kid-centric wearables are on the way. Far from lurking on the horizon, as our roundup article demonstrates, they’re already here. Parents are monitoring their children, for better and for worse.

8

Jun

For the first time since the 1980s, we’re excited about a music synthesizer

Why it matters to you

Roli’s portable Seaboard Blocks keyboard’s compactness makes it great for composing on the go.

Roli, the London firm best known for its iOS apps and portable MIDI controllers, went all-in with its Seaboard series three years ago. The soft-touch music keyboards, which swap out tactile piano keys with continuous-touch, silicon “keywaves,” are among the most customizable musical instruments on the market. But they aren’t exactly affordable synthesizers around — the cheapest model, the Seaboard Rise, starts at $800 (the Seaboard Grand is $3,000). Later this month, though, that’ll change with the introduction of the Seaboard Block.

The Seaboard Block, which Roli announced on Thursday, is the smallest, lightest, and most compact Seaboard yet. It’s also the first to be compatible with Roli’s modular Blocks system and, at $300, it’s also the most accessible synth from the company yet.

“Music making will only begin to thrive in the digital age when electronic instruments are truly intuitive and can be played as expressively as any acoustic instrument,” Roli chief Roland Lamb said in a statement. “Seaboard Block is the culmination and convergence of our work at Roli to create new instruments that are deeply emotive and easy to play.”

We had a chance to play with the Seaboard Block ahead of Thursday’s announcement, and discovered an experience that’s impressively close to the Rise and Grand. The Block made from the same material (albeit a bit thinner), and features 24 raised keys which can distinguish between taps and touches of varying force. For example, you can mimic instrument vibrato, such the warbling of a violin string as the player’s finger moves rapidly on the string, by creating a similar movement on the keys.

As mentioned, the Seaboard Block is highly customizable, too. You can adjust the key sensitivity via a PC or an iOS app, and assign configurable filters to touchpads set into the keyboard’s top and bottom edges. By default, swiping across the bottom modulates the pitch. In fact, the entire device is essentially a touchpad.

The Seaboard Block works well as a standalone MIDI controller. Paired to a PC or MAC, it feeds taps and touches via a low-latency Bluetooth connection to Roli’s proprietary Equator Player, which ships with over 100 sounds (from percussion to strings), six sound packs (including Vintage Electronic and Cinematica), and it’s easy to add to digital audio workstations, working equally well in environments like Cubase and FL Studio, as well as Abelton Live, Logic Pro, and Omnisphere.

On mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad, the Seaboard Block pairs with Roli’s Noise app, which packs loops, instruments, and other music creation tools. After you’ve created a recording, a social component lets you publish your works to Noise.FM, Roli’s social network for music producers, where you can also download and remix compositions and collaborate on songs with other users.

Block heads

Perhaps the best thing about the Seaboard Block is its aforementioned compatibility with Roli’s Blocks, a puzzle-like system of modular MIDI controllers that snap together. And that’s where the Seaboard Block really shines.

Roli’s Blocks include the Live Block, which lets you switch scales and octaves, trigger chords, and sustain notes on the fly; the Loop Block, which features playback controls that help record a loop and play it back; and the Lightpad Block, a pressure-responsive, illuminated grid that lets you manipulate sound with taps, glides, and other gestures. The Seaboard Block hooks to Block modules on any side, or even additional Seaboard Blocks.

As the name implies, the Seaboard Block really starts to make sense when you pair it with other Blocks.

Roli is also introducing a new Block alongside the new Seaboard called the Touch Block. It’s the same size as the Live Block and Loop Block, designed to offer “expressive” controls for the Lightpad and Seaboard’s touch-sensitive surfaces, like one that adjusts how side-to-side finger movements bend pitch on the surface of the Seaboard Block.

As the name implies, the Seaboard Block really starts to make sense when you pair it with other Blocks.

Attach the Seaboard Block to the Live Block, for example, and you get illuminated playback controls, a dedicated “record” button, volume controls, and a multicolor progress bar that shows the progress of the loop or song that’s being played.

Pair it to the Lightpad Block, and you get a sample queue, a visual metronome, and programmable instruments designated by color. You can assign any one of the Noise app’s 128 virtual sounds and instruments to individual squares on the Lightpad, multiple columns, or the entirety of the controller’s light-up surface.

The only downside there is the potential expense. The Lightpad Block retails for $180, and Roli’s other Blocks — including the Live Block, Loop Block, and the Touch Block — start at $80. It doesn’t take long before the costs add up.

But Roli argues that with Blocks, you get more bang for your buck than most MIDI systems — and that’s a fair point. You only need a Lightpad Block or Seaboard Block to get started, and the other Blocks are optional — Roli’s Noise app lets you tweak every part of the experience. In comparison, Abelton’s popular Push 2 will run you $800 with the software.

Roli believes that the Seaboard Block will appeal to another demographic outside the studio world, as well: Music creators who want an affordable, lightweight controller they can fit in a backpack.

“[The Seaboard Block] is one of the most simultaneously accessible and expressive digital instruments ever made,” Lamb said. “I can’t wait to hear what people create with it.”

The Seaboard Block is available for pre-order through the Roli store and retail partners including Sweetwater, GuitarCenter, and Amazon. It begins shipping in late June.

8

Jun

For the first time since the 1980s, we’re excited about a music synthesizer

Why it matters to you

Roli’s portable Seaboard Blocks keyboard’s compactness makes it great for composing on the go.

Roli, the London firm best known for its iOS apps and portable MIDI controllers, went all-in with its Seaboard series three years ago. The soft-touch music keyboards, which swap out tactile piano keys with continuous-touch, silicon “keywaves,” are among the most customizable musical instruments on the market. But they aren’t exactly affordable synthesizers around — the cheapest model, the Seaboard Rise, starts at $800 (the Seaboard Grand is $3,000). Later this month, though, that’ll change with the introduction of the Seaboard Block.

The Seaboard Block, which Roli announced on Thursday, is the smallest, lightest, and most compact Seaboard yet. It’s also the first to be compatible with Roli’s modular Blocks system and, at $300, it’s also the most accessible synth from the company yet.

“Music making will only begin to thrive in the digital age when electronic instruments are truly intuitive and can be played as expressively as any acoustic instrument,” Roli chief Roland Lamb said in a statement. “Seaboard Block is the culmination and convergence of our work at Roli to create new instruments that are deeply emotive and easy to play.”