التخطي إلى المحتوى الرئيسي

Here’s some of the crazy tech AT&T is developing behind the scenes

Last week, AT&T invited TechnoBuffalo to its New York headquarters for a science fair of sorts. Researchers working for the company all over the world assembled in one room to show off the latest cutting edge hardware and software they’ve been developing in private. There was a lot to take in, and not much time to do it, but we managed to check out a few cool projects. Here are the three most exciting things we saw at AT&T’s Innovation Showcase.

Project Car Seat:

See full gallery on TechnoBuffalo

Developed at AT&T’s Foundry in Texas, this car seat attachment creates a direct line of communication between your smartphone and your vehicle. The inspiration actually came from news reports of children being left inside cars on particularly hot days, so it comes loaded with sensors for detecting CO2, heat and motion. However, that’s just a small fraction of what Project Car Seat can do.

“It connects your car to the rest of your digital life,” says Michael Albrecht, who currently leads the project.

Once Project Car Seat is installed it goes way beyond it’s original purpose. The same small box of sensors can remind you where the car is parked, text you when the vehicle needs a maintenance check, or entertain you on long drives. It even doubles as a Wi-Fi hotspot.

This project is still in development, so it’s unclear what exactly the final product will look like. The prototype we saw seemed to attach to a standard child seat without too much effort, making it easy to turn any regular old car into a smart vehicle.

Sound Safari:

See full gallery on TechnoBuffalo

Next up was Sound Safari, a futuristic home monitoring system based entirely on sound. The technology, which is based on acoustic intelligence, could turn your house into a smart home without needing to pack every appliance full of chips and sensors.

“Acoustic intelligence is machine to machine learning of sound and the ability to then detect them when the machine hears that sound,”explained Ruth Yomtoubian, Business Innovation Lead at the AT&T Foundry.

At home, Sound Safari could be programmed to recognize a range of sounds, including the doorbell, footsteps, running water, boiling water, a smoke alarm and a dog barking. For each noise, you could then receive a notification on your phone, letting you know what’s happening when you’re not there.

The same technology could also work in industrial settings or in a cars. For example, Sound Safari would be able to warn you when your car engine starts ticking and needs repairs before you ever notice something is wrong.

SmartBay:

See full gallery on TechnoBuffalo

Finally, there’s SmartBay, a collaboration between AT&T and UC Berkley to help solve traffic issues in the Bay Area. By collecting anonymous smartphone data and crunching the numbers, AT&T can help improve urban planning and even predict how to deal with daily road issues. In the long term, the information could help decide where to add more parking lots, or even how a new sports arena will affect local traffic.

The concept is pretty cool, though unfortunately AT&T isn’t planning to turn all that data into a public product. We could see the technology competing directly with crowdsourced mapping apps like Waze, though that would likely require asking each user to manually opt-in for tracking. Still, it’s an interesting look at what this kind of data can do at scale.

There were dozens of other projects to check out, and even more that didn’t make the trip to New York that day—we heard rumors of a smart-fridge that was nowhere to be seen. For even more info on interesting technology AT&T is working on, check out the Foundry website via the source link below.



Source: AT&T Foundry

from TechnoBuffalo http://ift.tt/1QSlCrt
التسميات:

تعليقات

إرسال تعليق

المشاركات الشائعة من هذه المدونة

Tesla Model S update promises to solve “range anxiety”

Tesla announced a new update coming to its Model S car this year which should make it impossible to ever drive too far away from a charging station, at least on purpose. The company also confirmed plans to add auto-steering features later this year. Ahead of the recent event, CEO Elon Musk promised to kill “range anxiety” once and for all, describing the concern some Tesla drivers feel over whether they’ll be able to reach a charging station in time. Once the firmware update (version 6.2) hits, it will add a Range Assurance application that keeps track of your location and the nearest chargers. The app, which always runs in the background, will send a notification to the driver if he or she is about to wander out of range so that they can turn around in time. “This makes it effectively impossible for a Model S driver to run out of range unintentionally,” Musk said. Version 6.2 should roll out in the next two weeks. It also includes a new Trip Planner feature that helps map out long...
إرسال تعليق
قراءة المزيد

Comcast Xfinity Share app lets you stream video to a friend’s TV

See full gallery on TechnoBuffalo Comcast just announced its own live streaming app to compete with Periscope and Meerkat . Xfinity Share is available now for Android and iOS, though it’s pretty limited at the moment. The new app lets you stream video from your smartphone straight to someone else’s phone or TV. However, you both need to be paying for Xfinity Triple Play service and have access to the company’s X1 set-top box software . Comcast is still working on rolling out X1 to many of its customers, so for now Xfinity Share’s scope will be extremely limited. Still, the potential here seems pretty obvious. Periscope and Meerkat may appeal to a younger generation, but for everyone else Comcast’s solution sounds a lot more practical. Based on the company’s own renders, you could go from watching TV to watching a live stream with just a few clicks from the remote. Down the road, Comcast also plans to offer new features that should expand what Xfinity Share can do. That include...
إرسال تعليق
قراءة المزيد

Apple Maps may finally get public transit directions with iOS 9

A new report from  9to5Mac  says Apple Maps will finally get public transit directions along with a few other new features in iOS 9. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard similar claims , but hopefully this time the rumors are true. According to the generally reliable Mark Gurman, Apple “hopes” to include subway, bus and train directions with iOS 9. The update may add a new trip planning feature and a special public transit view as well. The company is also hoping to debut indoor mapping this year. Apple is already using small iBeacon-equipped robots to map indoor spaces, though it’s unclear if the new feature will be ready in time. Apple Maps has gotten progressively better over the past few years, but it’s still missing a key feature for anyone who lives in a city or relies on public transportation. Of course, that’s just a small fraction of the company’s massive user base, so it makes sense that Apple isn’t in a rush to add subway directions. If Apple does announce th...
إرسال تعليق
قراءة المزيد