After more than a year when most of us had no choice but to do most of our shopping online, Lush was far from the only retailer which had to rely heavily on technology to keep going. Yet even now as things seem to be returning to something closer to a pre-pandemic reality and we look forward to going getting out of the house to go shopping (imagine!) that doesn’t mean we have to give up all the benefits that technology can add to making the retail experience better.

Lush Lens was designed to offer customers a packaging-free and contact-free shopping experience.
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With that in mind, the handmade cosmetics company has just relaunched the Lush App, developed in collaboration with Saleor using open-source technology in line with Lush’s Digital Ethics Mission Statement. It will allow customers to browse product ranges with improved search optimisation, a new checkout process, and new ways to pay.

Lush Lens has had 2.6 million scans since its launch on iOS in 2018
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The app – which is now available in the UK on iOS and Android – features for the first time one of the most successful #LushLabs features, called Lush Lens, a mobile AR feature which was designed by Lush’s in-house tech R&D team to offer customers a packaging-free and contact-free shopping experience.

Lush Lens has had 2.6 million scans since its launch on iOS in November 2018, prompting the company’s founder, Mark Constantine, to assert that the technology had the potential to revolutionize the packaging industry, and even possibly eliminate it.

“At Lush we make products by hand, with fresh and ethically sourced ingredients, and this informs our digital products too. I’m so proud of the new platform the teams have created which showcases the best of what we can do – ethical treatment of customers’ data, created using open source technologies and providing a five star customer experience, with a few Lush surprises along the way,” says Jack Constantine, Chief Digital Officer at Lush.

Lush Digital believes in ethical tech that ultimately gives back more than it takes from society and the environment
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Lush champions ethical hardware, ethical data, ethical design and open source technologies. Just as the company ethically sources ingredients, Lush Digital believes in ethical tech that ultimately gives back more than it takes from society and the environment.

Adam Goswell, Lush Tech R&D, believes that such technology can add (not replace) in giving quality, up to date information in matching customers with the perfect product.

“If we can reduce the time spent at the till or eliminate the queue (which we all hate) then technology is really going to elevate the retail experience to be much more about human interaction and experience,” he believes.

Tech Trends’  Consultancy services offer support for companies looking to enhance their brand’s digital strategy with immersive and emerging technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a technology journalist, communications consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter

The post Getting a Post-Pandemic Digital Makeover appeared first on Tech Trends.

It’s rare to find an app where even the free version is also free of advertisement. So what’s the catch? Surely it profits from user data in some way, there’s no such thing as a free lunch in tech…

In a nutshell, Camo is an app that turns your smartphone into a webcam
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Yet according to Camo’s Founder Aidan Fitzpatrick, the app’s strict no-tracking policy is a point of principle, and there is, in fact, no need for such intrusion into user privacy. Enough of their users are happy to pay the very reasonable $4.99 a month for the “Pro version” to fund the free app as well.

In a nutshell, Camo is an app that turns your smartphone into a webcam. Like all great tech ideas, it’s a simple concept, well-executed.

Even cameras in older phones are much better than any webcam on the market, so by using that old phone sitting in your drawer doing nothing as a webcam, you can get next-level video quality.

A big part of the harm consumers face with advertising is their data, demographics, and tracking running across the web
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The app has been used by the likes of Seth Godin, Wall St Journal’s Joanna Stern plus employees from Harvard, Stanford and Oxford Universities, who praise it for its ability to create a professional-quality webcam experience from the user’s phone and browser.

“I’ve spent years building products to help people get better access to their own data,” says Fitzpatrick, who founded his company Reincubate in 2008 after building the world’s first tool for iOS data recovery, which enabled users to securely manage their data.

Camo’s Founder Aidan Fitzpatrick is a software engineer, angel investor, entrepreneur, and author who started his first company at 14

There's a huge amount of competition by unworthy publishers, trying to rank low-quality services or information
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Working in that space for so long gave him many opportunities to see the more distasteful ways to use data, and the wide range of bad actors out there looking to get access to it, he explains as he unpacks how important the issue is to him.

“The internet has played a big role in my life and my career, and it’s in almost everyone’s interests to push it along the responsible, sustainable path of public good rather than narrow, private interests.”

Fighting Fakery

Fitzpatrick talks about the idea that consumers on the web these days are surrounded by “fakery.”

Yet while some forms of fakery — fake news, fakery in public discourse, and the use of trolls to attack viewpoints on social media – have been widely discussed, there is a lot more to it than that, he explains.

“Fakery pays off for the unethical. Amazon and other platforms have received coverage for fake product reviews on their platforms. Instagram is busy with promoted products, many of which use fake reviews and undisclosed influencer endorsements. Sometimes even the products themselves are fake.”

Even cameras in older phones are much better than any webcam on the market
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“More broadly, consumers have experience with this fakery on Google. There are some Google searches that are just hard to do. Have you ever tried searching for a plumber or medical advice on Google?  There’s a huge amount of competition by unworthy publishers, trying to rank low-quality services or information.”

Even services like Grubhub and Postmates have been criticized for allegedly faking profiles for restaurants that they don’t partner with, in an attempt to capture and redirect their leads. “A big part of the harm consumers face with advertising is their data, demographics, and tracking running across the web,” says Fitzpatrick

Making it Pay

While Fitzpatrick believes that consumer privacy and choice have been jeopardized by large web corporations and social media giants, he recognizes that they must make money.

His argument, however, is that there is no need for such companies to be so data-hungry in capturing and monetizing information about their users. It is, in fact, still possible for them to build effective first-party advertising networks with a smaller set of data.

“Paid services along the lines that Apple focuses on, or which Google have explored with YouTube Music may prove increasingly worthwhile.”

And of course, his own product manages to make money without storing and tracking consumer data:

“Our model is very simple: we offer a free version of our products, and a paid version. We’ve no need to track data for trials, or to try and monetize with ads baked into our products, so we don’t.”

Algorithm Anarchy

He breaks down this disruptive rationale into three key areas that those designing tech products must think about to enable consumers to have more authentic experiences online:

1. Product: We don’t track user data in the products. We have no need to, and no interest in doing so. People’s data belongs to them. If the app fails, we do record information on what went wrong, but that’s clearly metadata, and about the functioning of the product in order that we can improve it, rather than anything about the customer. Where we record limited metadata on how the app is used, we only do for the purpose of better understanding and developing our own product — not for marketing — and we don’t share that information with any third parties.
2. Customer Records: If you buy something from a company, what data do they collect? We ask for the UK’s statutory minimum. We need their email and country of residence in order to send them the license and to apply the correct taxes. We use a third-party for card-processing, and don’t have any card details. In the UK we have to keep financial records for at least 6 years, but where users have lifetime licenses we need to keep that data for at least that time. Fortunately, it’s a very narrow set of data.
3. Marketing: This is hard because overreach in data capture feels like the norm. Most systems that permit advertising ask customers to embed tracking tools in their mobile or desktop apps or on their sites, and this is something we push back on. We don’t embed any advertising analytics tools in our products for this reason. Then there’s visitor tracking. We do use an analytics product to count the number of visitors to our site, and we’ve more work to do as the industry evolves to get ourselves happier with how these systems work. We’ve made good progress.

“The tech industry often assumes that using particular channels to market a product requires tracking. We reject that. Reincubate will continue to safeguard consumer privacy and choice with our commitment to respect privacy, refuse data monetization and intrusive tracking.”

Camo key features include:

• Film-quality video
• Easy customizing:  lighting, crop, zoom, focus, at your fingertips
• Plug and play
• Plays well with others:  use with Zoom, Meet, Teams, Skype, Slack, Google Chrome, Cisco Webex Meetings  +.
• Previews before going live
• The newly released 1.3 version offers even better functionality, including support for an additional 11 languages supported, power conservation, and screen aesthetic features.

Camo’s free edition is great for straightforward, high-quality calls, but lacks adjustments. It gives you resolutions up to and including 720p video, along with a choice of the device’s selfie lens, or it’s main back lens (the wide one). The free version of Camo also lets you access your device’s audio, and keep the screen of your device dimmed while using Camo. With free version, you can also connect multiple iOS devices and switch between them.

If you upgrade to Camo Pro, you get the following:

• Access to every lens on your phone (such as selfie, telephoto, ultra-wide & wide)
• “Portrait mode” on iPhone’s that support it, with bokeh effect and shallow depth-of-field
• Control of the device’s flash for use as a light ( turn it on and off, control the brightness)
• Access to any resolution the device provides (opening up 1080p and 1440 x 1080)
• Video mirroring
• Rotation of the feed in 90° increments (in case your phone is orientation locked)
• Zoom controls, with pan and tilt to keep you front and centre
• Focus adjustments (autofocus, focus on a particular area, manual focus control)
• Shutter speed and ISO adjustments
• Image adjustments including brightness, temperature, tint, hue, saturation, contrast, gamma, sharpness

Alice Bonasio is a technology journalist, communications consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post How Algorithm Anarchy Can Set You Free appeared first on Tech Trends.

Every nation has its quirks, and the U.S. has more than its fair share, but what stands out the most to me – as a tech journalist who recently made the move across the pond – is that in many ways, the nation of Silicon Valley is still stuck in the 90s.

Take cheques (or checks as you Yankees would call them) for example. In England it had been years since I’d last seen one of those things, much less written one. Up until five years ago our in-laws might have used them to give us Christmas or birthday money, but even they switched to Internet banking and just transferred the “green gifts” over to our account when they were feeling in a generous mood.

In many ways, the nation that gave us Silicon Valley is still stuck in the 90s
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But in the U.S. it quickly became apparent that these things were very much still in vogue. A paycheck is, quite literally, a pay check. And if you’re paying for something, the logical thing to do is write out one of these things, address an envelope, put a stamp on it, and trust that it will arrive at its destination between 3 and 30 days, at which point, if it hasn’t, you’ll need to repeat the steps above.

What tickles me the most, though, is that I have quite a nifty little banking app on my smartphone. And that app is really capable of doing all the things you would expect of such an app, such as moving money around without ever having to put pen to paper. Does it have that facility though? Not really.

In the U.S. a paycheck is, quite literally, a pay check
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What it does let me do is pay in my checks via the app. Yes. Once I receive my paper check from the pony express delivery, and sign the back of it with my ink pen, I can finally use my app to take a photo of both sides and pay it into my account. Huzzah!

And at that point, I will then likely have to find an ATM (or actually go to an honest-to-God old fashioned bank counter) and pay a few bucks for the privilege of withdrawing my own money into paper cash form.

I just did a mammoth roadtrip across America, listening to audiobooks I got from my local library… On Cassette
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Because in the good old U.S. of A, money really does make the world go around, and people do like their cash. Sure, most places will take cards, but more often than not it’s just easier to pay cash. In England I’d go for weeks without carrying any cash at all in my wallet, mainly because everybody did contactless payment (and you don’t tend to complicate things by tipping unless you’re at a restaurant) so it took a millisecond to pay and walk out.

Once I receive my paper check from the pony express delivery, and sign the back of it with my ink pen, I can finally use my app to take a photo of both sides and pay it into my account. Huzzah!
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When I opened my American bank account and finally got my bank card (about three weeks later by pony express) they proudly announced that my card contained this amazing chip and pin technology… Contactless is still a bit of a science fiction thing in a lot of places as far as I can tell.

Everywhere I look there are relics of the old world order, and not in a proper vintage sort of way either. Vinyl records, that’s retro cool. DVD machines at Walmart, WTF? But then again, don’t get me started on how expensive and bad the broadband service can be depending on where you live, so maybe Netflix is not as universally accessible as it seemed to me in the UK.

Contactless is still a bit of a science fiction thing in a lot of places
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Everywhere I look there are relics of the old world order
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I just did a mammoth roadtrip across America, listening to audiobooks I got from my local library… On Cassette tapes. I swear that at this point I would not be surprised to be handed a file on a floppy disk.

I also get endless paper catalogs in the mail. I literally cannot think of any circumstance which would tempt me to purchase something from them as opposed to ordering from Amazon. For one, it would probably involve writing a check.

And then, for the love of God, there is the fax. The first time someone suggested I fax over a document to them I laughed out loud and waited patiently for them to join me in the joke. They didn’t. After double checking I hadn’t fallen through a wormhole and come out in 1995, I informed them I did not possess such a machine, but would be happy to send them photographic scans of said documents from my phone (I have an excellent app called Camscanner which accomplishes this brilliantly) but alas, no, for many it is a matter of fax it or mail it. Email is not considered “secure.”

The first time someone suggested I fax over a document to them I laughed out loud and waited patiently for them to join me in the joke - they didn’t
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I can’t help but cast my mind back to the days when I did use fax (yes, I am that old, I just choose not to live in the past most of the time) and it seems to me that people used to send their sensitive documents to the wrong number all the time, specially since what you got at the other end was just a series of bleeps rather than a confirmation of who the fax number actually belonged to. But, sure, it’s safer than email or an app… If you say so.

But they do say so. I lost count of the times over the past few months I found myself bitterly wishing I did own a damned fax machine. And I have finally learned how to fill in a check properly.

I lost count of the times over the past few months I found myself bitterly wishing I did own a damned fax machine
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When in Rome… use contactless. But in America, be sure to carry cash.

Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. You can follow @alicebonasio on Twitter, connect with her on LinkedIn or subscribe to her Inside VR/AR Newletter for all the latest curated immersive news.  

The post What the Fax? appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Tomas Smith – production process specialist at Sewport

ColorSnap

Whenever you need to get more information on a color you see on a garment, accessory, or bolt of fabric, reach for your smartphone and load ColorSnap. This Sherwin-Williams iOS and Android app allows you to instantly identify any color that you see on the runway or in the office, and ColorSnap will even suggest matching colors that would go great with any garment that you fall in love with. Best of all, this app is 100 percent free.

Pinterest

Sewport CEO Boris Hodakel suggests that you think of Pinterest as your mobile mood board. It’s easy to make your own collections with this intuitive app, but you can also rely on the groups of images that other Pinterest users have collected to provide you with inspiration for your next garment or line. Pinterest is free to use, and it’s one of the most useful tools for collecting images that strike a chord with your aesthetic sensibilities.

Stylebook

Stylebook is an incredibly useful app that no fashion designer should be without. This app allows you to upload images of garments that you can add to your “Closet.” You can then organize these garments into “Looks,” and Stylebook even allows you to edit your garments and load them into a monthly calendar. While Stylebook costs $3.99, the value of this app is readily apparent if you’re the type of person who is constantly juggling different fashions and figuring out which garments look best together.

Instagram

If you haven’t downloaded the Instagram app onto your Android or iOS smartphone yet, you’re behind the times. Not only does Instagram provide you with an ideal format for browsing fashions and connecting with consumers, but you can also sell your fashions directly through this app’s intuitive storefront.

STYLEBOP

STYLEBOP for iOS allows you to keep track of the latest fashions that are sweeping the industry. Whether you want to derive inspirations from the best styles of the season or browse through your favorite designer’s latest handbags, STYLEBOP is an app that you won’t want to be without.

Women’s Wear Daily

Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) has long been the go-to platform for fashion designers who want to stay on top of the latest happenings in the fashion world. Whether you decide to subscribe to the print or online edition of WWD, you’ll receive free access to this platform’s iOS and Android apps. Print subscriptions cost $169.99 per year and digital subscriptions cost $129.99 per year.

Trendstop

Trendstop is like WWD but without the price tag. A subscription to this app only costs $5.99 per year, but it comes fully packed with features that you’ll love like fashion news and catwalk videos. Trendstop features robust sharing options, and this app makes it easy to keep up with all of the world’s most prestigious fashion shows with the touch of a button.

Silk Knots

Silk Knots is an app that you might never need, but you’ll be happy that this handy tool is on your smartphone if you ever need to show off your scarf-tying skills in front of an audience. This Hermes app features tons of intuitive info on the best ways to tie scarves around a model’s head, neck, or chest.

Vogue Runway

Vogue Runway is an up-to-date app that’s streamlined for the latest mobile devices. It contains all of the information you’ll need to keep track of all of this season’s fashion shows whether they’re taking place in Paris, Milan, London, New York, or elsewhere. This app is available in both iPad and iPhone versions.

Evernote

Evernote might not immediately strike you as a fashion app, but as soon as you touch this app’s iconic elephant head icon, you’ll fall in love with Evernote’s simplicity and multi-platform compatibility. This app allows you to seamlessly weave text, images, and videos together into intuitive files and folders. All of your info is then saved to the cloud so you can access it from any device.

The post 10 Best Fashion Smartphone Apps appeared first on Tech Trends.

One in five Americans are diagnosed with seasonal depression, and 5% suffer from a condition known as Seasonal Affective Disorder. Though doctors are still not entirely sure the cause of SAD, research suggests it may have to do with how light affects us. Varieties of light therapy have been shown to effectively treat symptoms in adults and children.

Color filter apps and built in settings on smartphones, while often ignored, filter out blue light from screens on a timer, dimming gently as the evening progresses to reduce eye strain and restlessness at bedtime
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To soak in some valuable sunshine, getting outside seems like the easiest solution. But with winter cold comes cloudy, short days; simply going outside isn’t always an option. Tech picks up the slack though by helping us establish simulated natural light that mimics patterns through a normal day. This means cool, bright light in the morning to help us wake up and warm tones in the evening to wind down. A study in 2018 had individuals spend 30 minutes of their morning wearing blue light-emitting goggles, participants reported feeling reduced sleepiness throughout the day compared to days without the goggles. Blue light works to wake us up by suppressing melatonin production – coincidentally, artificial lights like fluorescents have the same effect, making blue light less beneficial during the late afternoon and evening hours.

A study in 2018 had individuals spend 30 minutes of their morning wearing blue light-emitting goggles, and they reported feeling reduced sleepiness throughout the day
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The natural progression of the sun through the day eventually leads to warm tones. The brilliant oranges, yellows, and reds of the sunset are a good example. While beautiful, this regular shift in light is essential to our circadian rhythms and in those who are more sensitive to the changes of the seasons, the constant grey of the winter sky can be very disruptive. To combat this, blue-light blocking glasses come in handy, especially for those working in front of a computer all day. Bluwinx spectacles use clear, non-prescription transparent lenses that block out 59% of blue light and are designed for comfortable all day wear. Color filter apps and built in settings on smartphones, while often ignored, filter out blue light from screens on a timer, dimming gently as the evening progresses to reduce eye strain and restlessness at bedtime.

The infographic below from Best Health Degrees shows you what S.A.D. is all about and the ways that tech can help combat it
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Seasonal Depression Affects Millions

• 1 in 5 American adults has diagnosed seasonal depression
• 5% have seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
• 14% have the winter blues 一 a milder seasonal depression
• 1 in 4 American workers say January is their least happy month
• 1 in 3 say winter has a negative impact on their mood at work
• It’s not just adults ー SAD affects 2 million children in the US, age 9-17

Around one in five Americans are diagnosed with seasonal depression, and 5% suffer from a condition known as Seasonal Affective Disorder
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Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (ipRGCs) regulate:

• Circadian rhythms
• Pupil reflexes
• Mood and energy level
• SAD appears to be linked to the activation of ipRGCs, caused by either lack of daylight, or abnormal signalling
• Less daylight in winter months makes ipRGCs fail to regulate circadian rhythms

Blue light works to wake us up by suppressing melatonin production - coincidentally, artificial lights like fluorescents have the same effect, making blue light less beneficial during the late afternoon and evening hours
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SAD sufferers experience:

• Mood swings
• Fatigue
• Depression
• Melatonin: The Sleep Hormone
• Signals the body to calm down at night, enabling sleep
• Melatonin regulates
• Circadian rhythms
• Body temperature
• Blood pressure

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Thanks to tech, varieties of light therapy have been shown to effectively treat symptoms in adults and children
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Tech To Hack Light Patterns

Establishing the right lighting for each time of day will improve your sleep, mood, and alertness

Morning: Bright, cool light will help you feel alert and boost your mood

In a 2018 study, spending 30 minutes wearing blue light emitting goggles in the early morning significantly reduced participants sleepiness

Try This ー Philips Wake-Up Light: Slowly shifts from dim red to bright yellow light, mimicking sunrise

Evening: Block blue light to increase melatonin and get better sleep

Harvard researchers found that after 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light, participants’ circadian rhythms shifted by an average of 3 hours

Try This ー Philips HUE Smart Bulbs: Easily programmed to shift to warmer tones in the evening

Night: Use dim red night lights, or skip the night light all together

Just 8 lux, 2x the brightness of a typical night light, is enough light to disrupt sleep 一 Red light has the least impact on sleep

Try This ー SomniLight Night Light: Dim red light helps you see in the dark, without disrupting sleep

Blue light suppresses melatonin levels, helping you feel more alert during the day, but making harder to fall asleep at night
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Tech To Block Blue Light

Blue-blocking glasses: Filtering or tinted lenses block out harmful blue light
For All-Day Wear一Bluwinx: Clear lenses filter out 59% of blue light
For Evening UseーUvex Skyper: Tinted lenses block 98% of blue light
Color filter apps: Automatically reduce screen brightness and shift to warmer colors at sunset
Night Shift ー Built-in feature for iOS and Mac
Twilight ー App for Android phones and tablets
F.lux ー App for Mac, Windows, and Linux

Tech to Get Some Sun

Bright Light Therapy*
Proven to treat SAD 一 Artificial sunlight triggers ipRGCs and resets your circadian rhythm

Choosing A Therapy Light
Light box: Widely available and affordable
Desk lamp: Easily blends into your decor
Visor: Allows patients to move freely during sessions

Look For These Features
2,500 – 10,000 lux: Low intensity lights require longer sessions
Short wavelength light: Cool tones, mimicking daylight, are best
UV filtering: Ultraviolet (UV) light can be damaging to your eyes

Apps For Your Winter Blues

WhatsMyM3
Track your moods for warning signs of SAD
Assesses your risk of depression with a research-based screening
Tracks scores over time, helping you know when to seek help

Fabulous
Get active with daily exercise and time outdoors
Created by Duke’s Behavioral Economics Lab
Helps users build toward healthy habits in small, easy steps

Pacifica
Focus on a healthy diet and lower stress
Tracks your mood, diet, caffeine intake, and sleep to identify patterns
Offers meditation, journal space, and other relaxation aides

TalkLife
Ask for the help and support of others
Online community provides the support of others with depression
Allows users to post anonymously, and chat with others

DMinder App
Location-based tracking of vitamin D from sun exposure
Notifications and forecasting of best time to go outside
Warnings help prevent sunburn based on skin type

Though doctors are still not entirely sure the cause of SAD, research suggests that it may have to do with how light affects us
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Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. You can follow @alicebonasio on Twitter, connect with her on LinkedIn or subscribe to her Inside VR/AR Newletter for all the latest curated immersive news.  

The post Infographic: Winter Blues Tech appeared first on Tech Trends.

These coding school graduates are showing off some cool immersive tech applications.

Fullstack Academy is one of the nations top coding schools which so far has helped over 1,000 people enter the field of software development. And many of those technology jobs these days involve working with Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality applications; something Fullstack is supporting through its Y Combinator-backed immersive software engineering program.

“Many of today’s top developers coming out of our program are changing the way AR/VR is looked at by big companies – from “pie-in-the-sky” sci-fi stuff to real apps using machine learning, facial recognition and more,” says Fullstack Co-founder David Yang.

Fullstack Academy is one of the nations top coding schools which so far has helped over 1,000 people enter the field of software development
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Indeed, it’s a reflection on the boom (and continued expected growth) in the Immersive Technology market that many of the students completing the academy’s programmes chose to work on AR or VR projects as part of their final. We collected some of the best ones here to give you a flavour of what the next generation of devs has in store for this exciting space.

It’s a reflection on the boom in the Immersive Technology market that many of the students who have recently completed the program have chosen to work on AR or VR projects
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augMenu

Team: Michaela Adams; Lindsay Maher; Madhuwanti Jadhav; Dhara Naik

augMenu is an app that lets you preview menu items in a restaurant before purchasing.
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augMenu is an app that lets you preview menu items in a restaurant before purchasing. It can also let users browse items not written in English…even non Latin alphabets!

“This was our first experience working in AR, so the challenges were extensive and we learned a lot,” said Dhara Naik. “Camera components only work with React Native, but we eventually overcame this by using screen capture functionality in Viro.”

Blacklight

Team: Minami Kato; Alex Tartarinov; Trevor Storey; Brian McCann

Blacklight is an AR application for associating memories to a location
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“The Backlight team believes catalogued memories can be more integrated into your immediate experience,” said Minami Kato. “When I was here studying at Fullstack, the solar eclipse happened and a stranger let me borrow glasses to watch. I left the memory there, which was made possible by React Native Maps, a framework provided by AirBnB.

ScavengAR

Team: Luke Pura; Wayne Temple ; Eric Roth ; Tom Sziler

ScavengAR is an augmented reality scavenger hunt
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ScavengAR is an augmented reality scavenger hunt that give users the unique experience of traveling through a city and following clues and hints to find locations. Whatever subject you fancy–history, architecture, true crime, literature, music–stories are embedded in the world around you, and AR can help expose them.

“For players we needed to be able to track their location as well as the location of the next clue,” said Tom Sziler. “To locate our users React Native gave back latitude and longitude coordinates, but in order to make those in feet for users, we used a library called geolib.”

DataVR

Team: Robin K. Wilson; Daniel Ong; Jing Jia

DataVR reimagines the way that people deal with large sets of data
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If you aren’t good at visualizing or if you’re not an abstract thinker, data-heavy fields can prove really frustrating. VR can help you see right in front of your eyes the information you’re having trouble conceptualizing (for example by offering an immersive visualization of real-time cryptocurrency transactions) and organizing it in your brain.

“We started off with classic bar charts, scatterplots, and cluster analyses, and finally combined two cutting-edge technologies,” said Jing Jia. “We really explored React VR and learned to render objects and models from data.

For technologies like AR/VR to become mainstream, ordinary people have to realize how accessible they are and how we can use them for good
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“In order for “sci-fi” technologies like AR/VR, machine learning, and facial recognition to move more into the mainstream, ordinary people have to realize how accessible they are and how we can use them for good–to improve our day-to-day lives, help us feel good, and teach us about our world,” reflects Yang. “Fullstack Academy and Grace Hopper students are precipitating that shift in our understanding by consistently pushing the envelope and finding novel ways to incorporate these underutilized technologies. At Fullstack, students are encouraged to be curious, try new things, and solve the problems you see around you, even if that means letting the robots help.”

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasioon Twitter.

The post Developing the Future of VR Apps appeared first on Tech Trends.

These cool goodie boxes are a fun way for children to learn digital skills and have fun in the process.

Teaching children the skills they need to understand – and make – tech products (as opposed to just using them) is something I’m very passionate about. Even for kids who don’t go on to become programmers or anything along those lines, the knowledge of what goes on “under the hood” is always going to be valuable, as are the concepts of applied logic, persistence, and collaboration which come with building things with code.

The kits are developed so that you don’t need any previous coding experience of any sort to keep up
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Which is why I was keen for my niece and nephew to try Bitsbox, a subscription service which sends you everything needed to get the little ones started with cool coding projects.

Even for kids who don’t go on to become programmers or anything along those lines, the knowledge of what goes on “under the hood” is always going to be valuable
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Unlike platforms such as Scratch or code.org which they had already been using, Bitbox uses “real” coding. By which I mean that you have to get stuck into some proper typing rather than dragging and dropping blocks that visually represent the code. Both approaches have their own merits I find, and actually complement each other. The kits are developed so that you don’t need any previous coding experience of any sort to keep up though.

You have to do proper typing rather than dragging and dropping blocks
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After some predictable frustration when things didn’t initially work, they got the hang of it
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When you miss something out from your code, the platform gives you helpful debugging tips that hint at where the error is hiding
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One, called “Run Dodo Run” was particularly fun, as they could make said Dodo jump frantically higher and higher at ridiculous supersonic speeds. There is a playfulness to all these activities, and that helps sugar coat the hard work of paying attention to whether you remembered to close a bracket properly or add a comma in the right place.

“We got this for my 9 y.o. son’s birthday, we laminated the intro cards and his first actual box arrived yesterday. He loved the binder and has been coding constantly since it arrived. He said he felt “accomplished” when he coded his first game tonight. He has thanked me 2 dozen times and I saw him admiring his cards. Happy to see his screen time put to use with practice keyboarding and brainstorming!” Liz O’Neill Rich, Iowa

The kit is meant to appeal to a broad age range, and indeed the materials lived up to that promise. My seven-year-old guinea pig got stuck into a paint-by-stickers book (the concept is really the same as coding, in that you are following instructions to build up a bigger picture using blocks (much like they do in code.org or scratch) while my nephew, who’s 12, started creating an original app without using the activity cards.

With Bitsbox, children learn to program by creating fun apps that work on computers and gadgets like iPads and Android tablets
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The kit is meant to appeal to a broad age range, and indeed the materials lived up to that promise
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The Bitsbox platform has a large number of template assets you can use
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Bitsbox is a successful start-up that has been getting a lot of traction and attention (they were recently featured in Shark Tank) and it is a really well-thought-out concept and product which feels solid both from a pedagogical and entertainment perspective. It’s one of those things that makes me wish I was a kid again.

“I purchased this for my 7 year old who loves creating the apps from the codes supplied. It is a great way to introduce children to the world of coding and getting them to think about interactivity. I would recommend this to individuals and schools to use as part of the curriculum. In particular as coding has been placed on the national curriculum in the UK. This would be a great way to introduce this subject to children and assist teachers no doubt!” Gafin Morgan, UK

Parents wanting to try it out can subscribe to the service (monthly prices range from $16.95 for the digital-only version to $37.95 for a Deluxe version with extra goodies. You can also just buy a one-off kit with multiple units as a gift.

It is a great way to introduce children to the world of coding and getting them to think about interactivity
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With Bitsbox, children learn to program by creating fun apps that work on computers and gadgets like iPads and Android tablets. The Bitsbox.com website provides each child with a virtual tablet and a place to type their code.

The Bitsbox.com website provides each child with a virtual tablet and a place to type their code
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“So far we love it. I have a 7 year old daughter who wants to grow up and be a computer nerd. Thanks for helping make her dream come true!” Allison

The experience starts with lots of guidance, first showing learners exactly what to type, then quickly encouraging them to modify and expand their apps by typing in new commands.

“Wanted to give a big bouquet to you all for the excitement and enjoyment my 9 year old daughter got when she received her first Bitsbox yesterday in Middle Earth (New Zealand). Fantastic job with the design, love the recycled packaging, and the first impressions of the coding experience is thumbs up. Only problem now is that the 7 year old younger sister might have to be signed up too, to avoid WW3. Cheers!” Hassan Wong, New Zealand

Tech Trends readers can use the Promo Code TRENDY to get $20 off any 3 or 12 month subscription

• Kids look through the materials and pick an app.
• Every box comes with a mix of coding projects, ranging from simple to more advanced.
• Kids type the app into the Bitsbox website.
• Kids start with the code from the materials, then change it to make it their own.
• Kids use and share their apps on any mobile device.
• Bitsbox apps run on any computer, tablet, or phone with a web browser
• A new coding concept every month
• Perfect for curious kids 6 to 12 years old
• Kids’ apps work on real phones and tablets
• Unlimited email help with any subscription
• Free separate coding accounts for siblings

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Product Review: Bitsbox Coding Kits appeared first on Tech Trends.

Retailers need to embrace emerging technologies like AR if they are to stay competitive. 

In this VentureBeat article by Michael Park, I talk about how immersive technologies can reverse the implosion of retail and incentivise customers to physically visit shopping locations.

Immersive technologies can reverse the implosion of retail and incentivise customers to physically visit shops
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The broader trend in retail, particularly among millennials, is a shift in focus from products toward experiences. For this reason, many customers still choose to visit a physical shop even if it may be more convenient to order the item online. People still, at large, value the interaction and experience that comes with physical location shopping. For retailers, this presents an opportunity to leverage technology to literally augment the value of their products for their customers.

Alice Bonasio is a journalist and consultant who covers the AR and VR industry. She expands on this point, “the ability for customers to ‘try before you buy’ will result in a reduction in churn, one of the major pain points for retailers. When it comes to larger items like furniture or household appliances, one of the biggest drawbacks for consumers is that they misjudge the amount of space they have available or dislike the way the item looks once it’s actually in their home. This buyer’s remorse is a huge drain on resources for retailers.”

AR allows customers to see an item in-store and then project it realistically back at home before finalizing the process by placing the order online
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Bonasio continues, “However, AR allows customers to see an item in-store and then project it realistically back at home before finalizing the process by placing the order online. Such omnichannel experiences will make in-person shopping a value add to the consumer and help retailers avoid churn.”

AR isn’t a gimmick — it’s a savior for local retail https://t.co/PE0QSW3kPu

— VentureBeat (@VentureBeat) December 12, 2017

If you would like to find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your own project or enterprise, Tech Trends offers Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Reviving Retailers with Augmented Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

HoloLens application PickAR promises to save e-tailers millions.

Much has been made of the use of robots to increase efficiency in warehouses – with e-tailers such as Amazon announcing significant investment in that area. But as impressive as those robots might look, they are still extremely expensive, and much better suited for picking large items and crates rather than putting together individual items to be shipped out to customers. For that, you still need to have a human walking around a warehouse for 8 to 12 hours a day, picking each item out of a shelf by hand.

Robots are still very expensive and better at picking large bulk items
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Most of the order picking in warehouses still has to be done by hand
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But a team of students from Georgia Tech believe they can make that manual process a whole lot more efficient: They developed an application called PickAR, which promises to dramatically streamline that process by using HoloLens Mixed Reality technology.

Oculogx has attracted attention from major retailers like Walmart
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Their company – called Oculogx – has already attracted attention from major retailers such as Walmart, and were the runners up in this year’s Imagine Cup, Microsoft’s global student technology entrepreneurship competition.

The team were runners-up in Microsoft's Imagine Cup competition
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The features hands-free barcode scanning and navigation
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The app combines features such as GPS-style mapping and path planning, head-mounted barcode scanning and checklist management into a single hands-free interface. This leaves a warehouse pickers free to use both hands to handle the actual items he needs to pick up, as opposed to managing handheld instruments like a handheld barcode scanner and a clipboard with a checklist.

“In our lab, when we were comparing against other dense picking mechanisms like voice pick, paper pick, and tablet pick, we saw a 37% decrease in the time taken to pick with wearable headsets and an improvement in accuracy,” says Industrial Engineering student and Oculogx Co-Founder Charu Thomas.

She met her Co-Founder Sarthak Srinivas outside the office of Thad Starner (Google Glass’s inventor) at Georgia Tech. As they started talking about their respective mixed reality ideas, they found a common interest in the technology’s supply chain applications – Thomas was looking at maximizing the use of space when packing bins into trucks – so it made sense to join forces and start working together.

Two of the company's Co-founders met outside the Georgia Tech office of Google Glass' inventor
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Microsoft supported the team in developing their idea
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At the time, Wenqi Xian was also working with Srinivas at Georgia Tech’s Augmented Environments Lab and she – together with computer science student Cheng Hann Gan – joined the Oculogx team to build their first prototype for HoloHack Atlanta – a HoloLens hackathon sponsored by industrial devices manufacturer ThyssenKrupp.

“Initially, we wanted to build a general mapping application, which could map out a space and then provide directions to get from one place to another within that space. However, while discussing with ThyssenKrupp and Microsoft representatives at the venue, we decided to narrow the scope of the app to warehouses, adding features like barcode scanning and warehouse mapping to focus on improving the efficiency of the order picking process,” explains Gan.

Srinivas had previously studied the logistics of order picking during his research for the Contextual Computing Group (another MR lab he worked in at Georgia Tech) but after the hackathon he started visiting warehouses to get a sense of how order picking actually worked on the ground. Seeing the huge technology gap between what is used in a typical warehouse and what they were working on in the lab convinced them that they were on to something.

“By the time we arrived at the Imagine Cup World Finals in July, we had visited over 20 warehouses and interviewed over 60 people involved in logistics and supply chain relating to our application,” Srinivas recalls.

Based on feedback from judges in the Imagine Cup US Finals – that they would to see the product working in a real warehouse, the next step was to test the app as a paid proof of concept in a real in the metro Atlanta region. This led to them working with Walmart, feeding the company’s historical data into the system and offering them estimates of time savings based on their current operations and the use of Mixed Reality technology in comparison to their current methods.

“We now want to make this a real product rather than just a cool demo,” says Thomas. And Srinivas adds that they have identified several facilities in Europe, Asia, and Australia who have expressed interest in actually piloting the technology, and are in the final stages of deciding which one they will be integrating with for the upcoming proof of concept and pilot which they’re aiming to launch next semester.

Oculogx are also continuing to work together with Walmart, but are not yet disclosing the details of the next phase of the partnership. Given the fact that all the students in the team are now working full-time on product development over the Summer and Srinivas is even taking a break from his studies next semester to focus on PickAR, momentum does seem to be building as more companies are getting wise to the potential of Mixed Reality to increase efficiency and save them money.

This article was originally published on VRScout

This HoloLens App Wants to Save eCommerce Retailers Millions via @alicebonasio https://t.co/StsWjPBitR pic.twitter.com/BcSqiNYVd4

— VRScout (@VRScout) August 26, 2017

To find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers bespoke Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Making E-commerce More Efficient with Mixed Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

There’s a plethora of sex toys out there, but as far as I can tell Miss on the Go is in a hybrid category of its own: Sure, it functions as a straightforward vibrator, but it also connects to a mobile app which turns it into a teledildonics device.

Then it effortlessly doubles up as a wearable Kegel exerciser that helps women locate their pelvic muscles, while pleasuring them at the same time.

I put it to Véronique Verreault – Miss On the Go (MOTG) Founder and CEO – that this seems like a classic case of having your cake and eating it too, and she laughs her agreement. “Why not?” she asks.

Verreault’s quest to create the ultimate sexual wellness wearable began while she was studying Management at University in 2014. She was looking for an outlet for her “entrepreneurial fire” as she puts it, and kept coming back to the idea of working with sex toys – which helped her get to know and feel happy with her body ever since she was a teenager. At first, however, the size of the industry and the taboo around it felt rather intimidating. In the end, though, her Eureka moment was inspired by the way she was able to do her favourite Kegel exercises discreetly, wherever she was.

“I had been regularly practicing those exercises, wearing my Ben Wa balls for many years, and absolutely loved it. I wore them when I went to work, while cleaning the house, you name it!” she recalls, saying she often tried to get her curious friends to try it out too.

Verreault’s quest to create the ultimate sexual wellness wearable began while she was studying Management at University in 2014
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“Don’t wait to have urinary incontinence, Darling! I was telling them about the benefits during sex, as you know… but not enough women do it. Then one day, I was sexting with my Kegel and I said that’s it. I thought ‘I need to create something.’”

That something turned out to be not only a sex toy and workout tool, but a connected app that made using the device a fun and social experience, turning your phone into a sort of sexual personal assistant. To do that, she had to not only secure investment and get her head around the complex logistics of running a tech start-up, but also overcome some considerable technical challenges.

 

“I wanted quality and we needed to start over and over to make sure it was meeting my expectations,” she recalls. “The Bluetooth antenna which hangs from the device needed a reliable connection, which is difficult when you throw things like water and metal into the mix. We needed to find a solution that was safe for the body and resistant enough for all the ladies out there to give it a proper workout.”

The main message she wants her product to convey is that confidence is incredibly sexy: “It’s not the short skirt or high heels that makes you sexy. It’s your attitude, your swag, you can have jogging pants and a pony tail and rock this grocery shopping! It’s the same with sex. Trust yourself, respect your body but don’t be shy about using sex toys to explore what feels good and have a healthy sex life,” she advises.

The main message the product conveys to women is that confidence is incredibly sexy
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It is appropriate, therefore, that the workout section in the MOTG app is called “Strong is the New Sexy”. This guides women through their Kegel workouts, with 10 cycles of 10 seconds each (5 seconds contraction with medium vibration, 5 seconds releasing contraction). Consistency is key, as the aim is to make women feel comfortable with the exercise, and contract without even noticing.

Once you invite a partner to play and they accept, you can exchange pictures and texts while they control the vibration on the device
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After downloading the app, users create a free account by choosing a username and password; connecting the device is a matter of turning it on and enabling Bluetooth on your phone to pair them, just as you would with a fitness band or pair of wireless headphones. The first time you use the app with the device you will also need to go into the settings to connect them, but overall it’s a very intuitive UI which makes the process straightforward.

In addition to the workouts, the app can also be used purely for fun, letting you either control it yourself by with the “My Own Pleasure” option, or handing over that control to other users, wherever they are in the world.

The fact that your profile remains anonymous not only encourages people–especially women–to experiment more
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The woman has full control over the experience at all times, as she sends out an invitation either to a specific person with the “I know who I want” option–this could be an existing partner who is traveling, for example —or to a complete stranger with the “mystery game.” The latter allows you to connect with other users based on Tinder-like criteria such as location, age, and preferences.

“The app lets you decide when you want to play. So honey, choose what you want. You want to play alone? Good! You want to play with someone? Good! As long as you’re good with your decision and confident about your choices, you’re good to go!” says Verreault

Sex with strangers? Yes, please!

The fact that your profile remains anonymous not only encourages people–especially women–to experiment more. But it’s also a big turn-on that their research uncovered, which places “stranger fantasy” as one of the top three the most popular amongst women (together with threesomes and lesbian sex).

Once you invite a partner to play and they accept, you can exchange pictures and texts while they control the vibration on the device. The whole experience is rated through a “pleasure bar” which indicates how satisfied the woman is by the interaction. So even though there is no physical stimulation in the bargain for, say, a distance boyfriend, that gamification can lead to some healthy competitive motivation.

Once you invite a partner to play and they accept, you can exchange pictures and texts while they control the vibration on the device. The whole experience is rated through a “pleasure bar” that indicates how satisfied the woman is by the interaction. So even though there is no physical stimulation in the bargain for, say, a long-distance boyfriend, that gamification can lead to some healthy competitive motivation.

Verreault clearly embodies the whole sex-positive mentality
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Keeping sex tech sex-positive

Verreault clearly embodies the whole sex-positive mentality, and is rightfully proud of what she’s achieved in the past three years. With no previous experience in tech, she managed not only to design and ship the MOTG device from scratch, but also develop the accompanying app and social platform, churning out some happy customers in the process.

She’s not resting on her laurels though. While the first version of the app is “fun,” she’s busy recruiting people to help her fulfill a list of improvements, “as long as Santa’s,” based on the extensive feedback from customers so far. And if her determination is anything to go by, it would seem–if you’ll excuse the pun–that the best is indeed yet to come.

This article originally appeared on Future of Sex 

Female #sextech entrepreneur shows ‘strong is the new sexy’ with @missvvsmystery Kegels sex toy and app system https://t.co/CUSCkEhM0V

— FutureofSex (@FutureofSex) May 4, 2017

For companies looking to gain a competitive edge through technology, Tech Trends offers strategic Virtual Reality and Digital Transformation Consultancy services tailored to your brand.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

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