Student

The Superbowl is one of the most watched events in the United States every year. It attracts many viewers which companies take advantage of. Companies pay millions of dollars to advertise their products to the many viewers watching the Superbowl. One of the advertisements that stood out the most was the Microsoft advertisement for their Xbox Adaptive Controller.

Video games are a key aspect in a majority of kids/teenage lives. Many people including people with disabilities enjoy playing video games. However, it is a lot more tough for kids with disabilities to play video games and actually play at the level other kids are playing at due to mobility restrictions. Microsoft was able to design an adaptive controller to help gamers who lost an arm or born with disabilities. It was empathetic of Microsoft to consider other gamers that may not be able to use the current controllers due to the natural born disabilities. Kids will always be fans of games and making an adaptive controller will include other kids that are born with a disability and it will enhance the player’s ability to play the game.

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-moving-xbox-adaptive-controller-super-bowl-2019-adam-levine-maroon-5/

Video of advertisement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YISTzpLXCY&feature=youtu.be

China has plans to implement a social credit system that would essentially rank its citizens as good or bad. This social credit system will inhibit bad citizens from doing things like booking travel throughout the country or make it impossible to get a loan until their scores improve. Your score is also able to be monitored by other citizens, enabling people to keep each other in check by reporting violations or acts of good. Companies are also able to contribute to a citizen’s social credit score by using their extensive backlogs of data. Things such as how long you play video games are tracked on company servers and can badly affect your score. Lastly, the government also obviously has ways to affect your score. Facial recognition and cameras that can identify you by the way you walk are planned to be used to affect your score. If these cameras see you doing bad acts in public, such as jaywalking, your score will again be negatively affected.

There are many problems that I have with this kind of system. The main issue that I have with it is that who defines what is good, and what is bad. Presumably, it’s the government, but why is their ideal being projected onto society. It will limit individuality, forcing people to conform in fear of repercussions. These new technologies have a lot of dangerous potentials that we need to, as a world, decide if we are comfortable with them being used like this.

Sources:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained

https://www.apnews.com/bf75dd1c26c947b7826d270a16e2658a

Healthcare is an industry that is on the forefront of emerging technologies that provide ease of access to patients. With all of the recent upgrades to medical equipment that provide assistance to doctors and nurses during procedures, virtual reality is looking to make the experience for patients smoother and easier to access. 

The progress that virtual reality has had in the healthcare industry has been tremendous, and the impact it will have in the future will continue to grow. By 2017, Markets and Markets reported that the VR healthcare market had grown to $976 million from $525 million in 2012. And, according to Grand View Research, the VR and Augmented Reality (AR) healthcare industry will be $5.1 billion by 2025.  This is why VR Health, an Israeli based company, has teamed up with Oculus to implement virtual reality within hospitals across the United States, ranging from Stanford Sports Medicine to Mass General Hospital.

One of the main reasons why virtual reality has become popular in the healthcare industry is because it has allowed the patients to receive treatments or be able to conduct a full assessment with a doctor remotely. If a patient were to simply put on a VR device in the comfort of their home, they would be instantly be able to communicate with their doctor and avoid the hassle of waiting in line just for a check up. They could also conduct physical therapy on these devices as instructions will be sent on the screen and the patient will follow in suit. On the surface this sounds like a great idea but there are some instant concerns that enter my mind. The first one would be how the hospital would be able to monitor the security of patient’s information through the VR device, as well as comply with HIPPA standards. Another concern that entered my mind would be what kind of meeting with the doctor would this work with. Would this only work with normal checkups, or more specific meetings that need more attention in person. 

This technology can also expand beyond the hospital scene and into the distribution of pharmaceuticals as well. One of my assignments during my internship at AmerisourceBergen was to research more about virtual reality and how we could implement that into the network of pharmacies that partner with us. One idea that I came up with was to implement virtual reality into the consumption of medicine for patients who need more help with the process, or for individuals who have never done it before. They could place a virtual reality device in each pharmacy to demonstrate how that specific medicine that each person is receiving is administered correctly. This could increase drug adherence and provide guidance on how often the drug should be taken.

Virtual Reality is here for the future, and it has a direct impact in the healthcare industry. It’s going to be interesting to see where this heads in the future. 

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferhicks/2018/09/30/see-how-this-company-uses-virtual-reality-to-change-patient-healthcare/#3eabdd5b455e

We hear it all the time: Google is always listening, and so is the government. They have our cameras, microphones, and our lives. Google is able to predict what content we want to see, and what advertisements we would be interested in. The government listens in on potential threats to other citizens (and probably more). Youtubers, such as Mitchollow, have even attempted to prove Google’s invasions on privacy. He has multiple videos showing Google using his microphone to pick up what ads to display to him. His first video involved dog toys. He checked multiple website with Google ads, and not a single ad had dog toys in them. He then started talking about dog toys for 2 minutes straight. The results were crazy, because he suddenly saw all these advertisements for dog toys. Plenty of people will find this harmless, but it definitely interesting to think about. Some companies know about this, and their aim is to restrict Google’s footprint.

FastCompany has created a “middle-man device” that is meant to stop Google in their tracks when it comes to always listening. The name is Project Alias, and it lays on top of Google Homes and restricts the ability to hear everything in a room. It uses constant low-noise sound that essentially block the Google device’s microphone until it is called upon. What makes this device even more special is the ability to create it at your house. It requires a Raspberry Pi machine, the ability to 3D print, and some GitHub software. This is the perfect device for somebody that wants the Google Home experience, but also want to keep Google away from their business.

Sources: https://9to5google.com/2019/01/14/google-home-project-alias/

Autonomous vehicles (AV) are set to be commonplace in the next decade, however they must overcome some significant hurdles before doing so. One interesting point is that currently, we assume that customers will own self-driving cars; what is more likely, however, is that transportation-as-a-service will be kicked into full gear with the launch of AV technology. Currently, the amount of people getting drivers’ licenses in every age group is declining, as services such as Lyft and Uber are becoming more popular. This may even mean that personal car ownership will be a thing of the past as AV technology gets implemented.  Moreover, effectively regulating AV technology is a major issue. In the past, there had been two fatal accidents that involved self-driving cars, and many senators in the U.S. believe that the technology is too risky and immature to be successfully implemented anytime soon. Also, there are concerns that humans will become too comfortable with the technology and rely on it past its capabilities. For example, when the airbag went mainstream in the 1990s, many people took this as a reason to not wear seat belts. 

However, there is no ignoring the potential benefits of AV technology. For example, approximately 1.3 million people die from car accidents each year, and 94% of the time it was due to human error. With refined, calculated AV technology, this number can significantly be decreased. These accidents cost an average of $500 billion worldwide each year, so a significant amount of money would be saved as well. While all the kinks of the technology will likely not be mainstream until a decade or so, motor companies are investing heavily to make it a reality. GM spent $581 million for further research, Ford invested $1 billion in the AI, and Tesla continues advanced development of the technology. 

Sources: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielaraya/2019/01/29/the-challenges-with-regulating-self-driving-cars/?ss=ai-big-data#75285de4b260

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/self-driving-car-technology-when-will-the-robots-hit-the-road

For years enterprise IT has been driven by the emergence of a new technology that changed business computing. Technology like laptops helped move computing from only at a cubicle into on the go productivity. Smartphones and tablets took this a step even further and have enabled users to work around the clock from virtually anywhere.Businesses have favored a disruptive technology, anything to revolutionize they way they were doing things. In recent years companies have shifted from large on premise data centers to cloud hosted solutions instead. Gartner Inc. predicted spending of 3.8 trillion in IT related spending in the year ahead, a 3.2% rise over last year. So where will this spending be if companies are shying away from the “next big thing”?

Research from Forrester Research said ” boundaries between IT and business-side decision-making are fading, “with much more powerful and fluid IT capabilities immersed in the very core of the business,””.  Companies are now investing more into how they can leverage the technology they bought in the last few years rather than spend on brand new tech.  Companies need to figure out how to get the most value out of the existing tools they have and start developing processes with IT in mind from the start. The view of IT as just a platform as which the business runs on is shifting to a view that IT is the engine behind the business. Because of this shift in mentality businesses are no longer seeking the on piece of technology that promises to change everything. 

Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-more-next-big-thing-trade-group-says-11548887879