Robots + Youtube = Unbelievable

As many of you know, I'm a HUGE junkie for innovative technology and the research that we are starting to develop with machines.  With this being said, we are now getting very close to creating robots that can pretty much perform everyday human tasks without our help at all.  At the University of Maryland, taking strides towards creating a robot that can act like a human has never been closer.  Funded by DARPA's Mathematics of Sensing, Exploitation and Execution, a team of students and staff have created a robot that can learn some human tasks strictly from watching Youtube videos.

Not only is Youtube one of the largest and most commonly used video sharing sites on the internet, but it now serves for a new purpose.  According to engadget.com, researches stated that they programmed the robot to watch a few cooking shows on Youtube.com and then tried to test it out.  The robot ran smoothly and completed the asked tasks with zero human interference.  This should be very interesting as they start to program the robot to watch other videos as the team told the media that it is capable of storing everything that it has watched, which leads me to wonder what can it do next? Will it be able to move and perform common gestures such as shaking hands the same way that humans do?  Could this mean that we will be seeing robots used much more often in the future performing jobs in the place of where humans once did?  Only the future can tell, and it should be more then interesting in seeing how far they can take this technology with the help of social media.

source:

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/30/darpa-robot-videos/

Snapchat Taking Strides Towards a New Direction

According the buisnessinsider.com Snapchat has over 100 million users around the world right now, and with the recent update that number will surely grow.  The recent update included a better interface, mapping adjustments and the Discover section.  However, hours after releasing this newly updated Snapchat, they also released their first original series of shows.  Snapper Hero, will show short videos ranging from 100 to 200 seconds long about all kinds of things.  What makes this much more then just another story is that they are including major Youtube stars.  Youtube stars such as Freddie Wong and Anna Akana are only a few among many on the list and will surely help the expansion of Snapchat into the media realm.  The biggest concern with this is that Snapper Hero is not directly affiliated with Snapchat and is creating a great stir as other social media competitors are competing for the potential buyout of this organization.  Will Snapchat spend all the money on Snapper Hero just to help with expanding further into social media? Or will other social media services try to buy them out in order to slow down Snapchat? Only time will tell.

Source: 
http://mashable.com/2015/01/28/snapchat-youtube-series-snapperhero/

From Bread to Barcodes

Picture this; you walk into a grocery store and are looking for a type of bread that is low in carbs and  is whole wheat. Instead of spending hours looking at every loaf of bread in the isle you simply walk up to a loaf and scan the bar code on the back, and are given all the nutrition information about the product along with the information about other competitors.  This simple task could save you a lot of time and frustration instead of searching every loaf in the isle, hoping you get lucky enough and happen to pull down the right product.  

This type of activity is becoming more and more prominent in todays society as companies such as GOOGLE and SCVNGR are literally giving away QR stickers for products to many retailers all across the world.  This isn't just a big deal because we can now use our phones for things other then Facebook or Trivia Crack, but because we are making a connection between the digital realm and the physical world.  These scanning tiles allow you to do all kinds of different things such as checking in your location to your friends via social media, and posting about the product on social media platforms.  According to mashable.com, companies such as Stickybits and Bakodo are creating communities through these scanning tiles.  All you need to complete this is the app to scan the code itself and the code and you're ready to give it a shot!

Starting out as simply a way for users to compare items when shopping, companies such as those listed above have created a new and rising way to engage in social media.  I not only think that these bar codes and scanning tiles are beneficial for society, I think that we will see the rise in these symbols in our everyday life.  Relating back to the bread shopping adventure, I believe that one day we won't even need to go searching a store for items.  It wouldn't surprise me if one day we could simply walk up to a store, can the product that we want and be directed right to the location where it is at and all the information about the product (along with ratings, social media posts about the product, and various images).  The rise of technology connecting the digital world and physical world  is very interesting to me and makes me wonder just how close we will get to connecting digital functions and everyday activities as time progresses.

source:

http://mashable.com/2010/08/20/top-5-social-media-trends/

Drone Takeover #phantom

One of the most popular hashtags in the world right now according to hashtags.org is the simple word #phantom.  No not Phantom of the Opera or the model of European car, but actually the newest and most anticipated drone of the 2015 season.  This stunning air craft is capable of being flown directly out of the box and is able to be monitored from the users iPad or Android tablet.  Another interesting feature about this product is its use of a GPS system just incase something were to ever go wrong and your drone may encounter some issues.  This drone doesn't just fly around and look cool, it also takes stunning images.  Equipped with a Sony 1/2.3 inch CMOS sensor, this little guy can take some incredible images of parts of the earth that we have never been able to experience first hand before.  This #phantom trend is really sparking all across the world as it has started to bring in over 1,000 hashtags per hour according to hashtags.org.  

So with all this hype and excitement towards the creation of drones, will we soon see the rise of drones in helping us with every day activities? Will we be able to develop technology using these machines to make simple everyday tasks into something that we can just tell this machine todo?  The future seems very bright as technology development and innovation continues to grow.

So why not check it out? The new Phantom2 vision+ is really something to be seen and watched as time continues. 

sources:
1. hashtags.org
2. http://doctanium.com/tech/the-best-drones-to-fly-in-year-2015/