Author Archives: loiswhitmanhess

You See What I See 

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This will be my 50th year attending CES, the largest tech show in the United States, and one of the largest in the world. It showcases more than 3,800 exhibiting companies and more than 165 thousand people from 150 countries.

I am pretty sure that I am the only one who has attended every show. There are others who claim to hold my title, but when I question them, I find it not to be true. The important thing for me is that my PR agency continues to introduce innovation.

This year, I believe we will be introducing one of the most innovative products at the show.

All the way from Vienna, Austria, Viewpointsystem will showcase their VPS 16 eye-tracking glasses in booth SV-6 at the Sands Convention Center during CES 2017, January 5 – 8, 2017.

Viewpointsystem is a technology company specializing in eye-tracking systems and vision analysis. Their main product, the VPS 16 eye-tracking glasses, is the most advanced system for recording, displaying and interpreting human eye movements. 

If the paramedics are wearing the VPS 16, doctors in the hospital can precisely view how a patient is being treated.

The VPS 16 is capable of identifying not only where someone is looking, but also what the wearer has really perceived. By precisely tracking the wearer’s eye-movements and following the chronological and spatial changes of the viewing coordinates, one could accurately determine what was subjectively perceived. 

Three high performance cameras record precise spatial images and the exact view that the user has with no time delay and streams them live on to the laptop or tablet of an expert in a different location in the world. 

This is perfect for 

· Training, e.g. in driving schools

· Medical sector

· Vision training in sports, rail, air, water, industrial processes

· Road safety

· Prevention of industrial accidents

. air, water, industrial processes

· Road safety

· Prevention of industrial accidents

So here I go again, promoting an entirely new product. This one, at the present time, is priced at $16,000. That’s because it’s a business-to-business product. One day this will be a consumer product at a much lower price.  Just think what it can do.

Stay tuned.

 

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Driving Myself Meshuga 

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Sometimes I think I can “will” things to happen. When I decided I didn’t want to drive anymore, I prayed for a limousine service. Puff, Uber was born. Lately, I have been hoping for some sort of mechanism that can prevent car crashes. 

Many Miami Beach roads do not have traffic lights. Every time we drive down one of these streets, I am constantly checking the cross roads for oncoming cars, and I’m not even driving.

Tonight my prayers were answered. Lester Holt, of NBC Nightly News, announced that the Transportation Department is forcing all new cars and light trucks to wirelessly talk to each other, talk with traffic lights and with other roadway infrastructure. That means it will dramatically reduce traffic deaths because of constant communications. Holt said there are 600,000 accidents a year, a deadly one every 15 minutes. 

The Transportation Department said future automobiles will be required to have Vehicle-to-Vehicle communications, or V2V, which enables cars to transmit their locations, speed, direction and other information 10 times per second. The Associated Press reports that new cars will be able to detect when another vehicle is about to run a red light, is braking hard, changing lanes or coming around a blind turn in time for a driver, or automated safety systems, to prevent a crash.”

This is such excellent news. Watch the video and let’s pray for safe roads and zero accidents. 

The Gold Ring 

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One of the major players in the music business just emailed me to say that finally there is an on demand music service for folks over 50. 

Fred Goldring, one of the founders of Music Aficionado, recently told the Wall Street Journal, “The over-50 “ demographic is largely being ignored in the digital world even though these folks are the most passionate about music because they lived all of it the first time around.”

Music Aficionado now draws more than 800,000 monthly visitors who spend an average of 23 to 24 minutes on it at a time. The  Wall Street Journal details how Music Aficionado plans to get older folks to pay for streaming music. I say, “Give us the music we love, without many interruptions, and we will pay something for it.” 

I met Fred almost 40 years ago when my PR agency represented HBO Video. He was very friendly with one of the VP’s, Eric Kessler.  I may have been in Fred’s company once or twice, but we corresponded over the years on different business matters. I spotted his name in the press many times and just smiled that at least I could get in touch with him.

I am including his career, as documented on LinkedIn, a networking site for business and academic professionals. Microsoft owns LinkedIn.  I thought it would be more fun to read about Fred this way. 

Read What I Read 

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Sex With Robots Is Almost Here 

Image: Pinterest

Shelly Palmer, TV tech personality, explores the ethical and moral issues arising from the advent of robots. Palmer claims there is incremental technological steps between where we are now and where this is clearly going. Click here to read more.
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Get Ready To Have A Good Laugh 

Don Rickles, Johnny Carson, and Frank Sinatra.  I sure hope this link works. You need a good hearty laugh. Click here. If it doesn’t work, I will try to post again later this week. This was posted by many friends on Facebook because it was so funny. 

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STAY TUNED

Tim Cook, Sheryl Sandberg among tech execs to meet with Trump this Wednesday. Read about it here. I will let your know the results of that meeting. 
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Fake Tweets

Trump fires a member of his transition team for tweeting fake news. Be careful what you tweet. Read here.

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Avoid Toys That Talk

You should probably still avoid toys that talk with your kids. Companies are collecting voice data. Click here.

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Say Hello To Cabbage Patch 2016

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I’m going to be very interested in your reaction. We are going from a passive, innocent doll, to a robot-type play thing that is filled with emotion.

In the next day or two, I’m going to call my pal Al Kahn, the marketing executive at Coleco who made the doll famous thirty-five years ago, to see what he thinks of the digital version. 

Now manufactured by Wicked Cool Toys, the  Cabbage Patch doll is highly interactive, with LCD screens that display a wide range of emotions. Retail price is $100. 

The baby doll will tell you when it is hungry, when it needs to be burped, and when its diaper needs to be changed. The doll’s cheeks glow red when sick and requires a special interactive spoon with medicine. 

For complete interactive features watch the video.

This is quite a different Cabbage Patch. It’s quite a different world. 
 

Your Car Can Become Your Significant Other    

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Some folks spend more time with their cars than anything else on earth. For those who love their automobiles, I have big news. Your cars are going to love you back.

Honda, the Japanese automaker, is working on a new type of car that is going to be filled with emotion. Honda issued a press release that said, “the emotion engine comes from a partnership between Honda and Japanese telecommunications firm SoftBank.” The two companies designed the AI technology that allows a car to gauge the mental state of the driver.

The automobile will be showcased at the CES next month. You can be sure that I won’t miss seeing this. I want to learn more about how the Honda will be capable of understanding the driver’s emotions and developing emotions of its own.

I know this sounds like a joke, but many authoritative periodicals reported the news today. Click here to see what Wired had to say and here for the Washington Post.

So far Honda is not providing too many  details how the technology works. Called the NeuV,  Honda says the automated elecric vehicle  will “artificially generate its own emotions.”

Honda claims their car will “grow up” with the owner. This all sounds very intriguing but I’m looking forward to asking Honda one simple question. “What happens to the relationship once the owner wants to upgrade to a new car?” We all know that breaking up is hard to do. 

#tbt Throwback Thursday  

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I’m not sure how it started, but Thursday has become a day when folks on social media post things from the past. This is mine from today.


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Happy Birthday Kirk

Image: Getty

5 Movies to Watch For Kirk Douglas’ 100th Birthday — According to Kirk Douglas

Click here.

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Madonna’s Carpool Karaoke is here and, well, you just need to see it for yourself

Click here

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The Biggest Success Story On Kickstarter Just Dropped Dead 

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Image: Pebble

One year you are a major success story in the tech business, twelve months later no one wants to know your name. Unfortunately,  I have seen my fair share of tech businesses come and go. 

Innovative companies have a very difficult time sustaining themselves. If your company is that trendy, you have to constantly come up with new ideas in order to stay ahead of the competition and/or keep customers interested. 

Such is the case with Pebble Technology Corporation, manufacturers of smart watches. The company just announced it is shutting down and selling its intellectual property to Fitbit. This is shocking, considering Pebble was the darling of the crowdfunding industry. 

The company attracted $20,338,986 in Kickstarter funds with 78,471 backers. All Pebble really wanted to raise was $500,000. Pebble became a celebrity company in just a few short weeks. Every other company which needed to raise money since then wanted to model itself after Pebble. 

Pebble’s popularity ran out when other manufacturers, with big brand names,  entered the smart watch market. One such company is Apple. To make matters worse,  the smart watch market didn’t take off as everyone expected. 

The demise of Pebble was first reported in the Los Angeles Times. Read it here.

Facebook Treats 

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Iris Apfel Dishes At 95 

If I can see the number, so can you.

Facebook folks try to engage you passing activities to others


Eliot is eating a honey bun from honey buns who gifted them to us.