By Laura Kobylecky

CES In Person 2022

In 2021, CES shifted to an online platform They replicated some of the experiences with video feeds, live chat and some interactive experiences.

This year CES became a hybrid event. On December 22, The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) confirmed that there would indeed be an in person CES event in Las Vegas on January 5-8. This event was to be paired with the online version that would include “digital access” to their online venue.

#CES2022 received 42 exhibitor cancellations for their in-person event
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They had received 42 exhibitor cancellations for their in-person event. Their press released emphasized that this was “less than 7% of our exhibit floor” and that they’ve had “added 60 new exhibitors for our in person event.” CES explained that they were making steps to ensure “a socially distanced but worthwhile and productive event.” These steps included “vaccination requirement, masking, and availability of COVID-19 tests” as well as social distancing measures.

On December 25^th Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) wrote an opinion piece for the Las Vegas Review-Journal discussing the decision to have an in person CES in 2022. He explained:

“CES will and must go on. It will have many more small companies than large ones. It may have big gaps on the show floor. Certainly, it will be different from previous years. It may be messy. But innovation is messy. It is risky and uncomfortable.

On December 31, 2021 CTA announced further safety measures for the event. They cut the last day of the event and announced that the new dates for the in-person event would be January 5-7, 2022. They confirmed that “All attendees must be FULLY vaccinated against COVID-19.” Anyone who was unable to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination would not receive a CES 2022 badge.

Attendees must pick up their own badges before entering CES show facilities. In order to receive the badge they must use “CLEAR’s free mobile app and Health Pass feature to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination” or go to a designated Customer Service Center location or airport locations to show their COVID-19 vaccine documentation.

Innovation is messy. It is risky and uncomfortable #CES2022
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CES gave attendees one “complimentary Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Self Test kit” which contains two tests, takes 15 minutes, and requires a “shallow nasal swab.” It was requested that the attendees take a COVID-19 test “less than 24 hours before entering a CES venue.”

The in-person event also has a variety of health and safety requirements. Attendees must wear masks in the exhibit facilities and booths, in keynote and conference rooms, and on the CES shuttles. Additionally CES provides “complimentary RT-PCR testing for attendees who are traveling back to their international destination and who require a test to travel.”

The list of companies that canceled their in-person presence includes:

• Lenovo
• T-Mobile
• Amazon
• Meta
• Intel
• General Motors
• Google
• AMD
• MSI
• Proctor & Gamble
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• iHeartRadio

Online CES

For the online CES experience, there are similarities to CES 2021. Like last year, there will be on-demand streaming content from the event and that content will remain active until January 31^st. Last year, on-demand streaming content was available throughout the duration of the conference.

#CES2022 attendees must wear masks in the exhibit facilities and booths, in keynote and conference rooms, and on the CES shuttles
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This year is different. As of January 7^th, most of the on-demand content is not yet available. CTA customer service confirmed via email that the on-demand content “will be uploaded within the next couple of days.”

However, at the moment, some of the some of the main keynotes are available for streaming including: Samsung Keynote, CTA State of the Industry Keynote, General Motors Keynote and Abbott Keynote

During the event, some of the sessions are live-streamed on the four available channels. There is a chat section where people watching can interact or comment. The digital venue includes an “explore” section where you can search through the list of exhibitors and attendees.

Once again CES has made an admirable attempt at adapting to an ever-shifting landscape and creating new experiences for the attendees
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On the exhibitor page, you may get a bit of information about the company, connect with some of their representatives or see some media or a press release. Some of the companies have microsites that were made specifically to support their CES presence. On the attendee page, you have to option to chat or connect with attendees.

For more social fun CES, added a “mingle” function. The “mingle” connects you to a total stranger who is a fellow attendee of CES. The introductions are based on “your profile,” most likely using the various “interests” that you can select. You have no idea who you are talking to beforehand, just allow access to your camera and microphone and enjoy the total surprise. The experience lasts for three minutes before you are connected to another unexpected person. After the chat, you have the option to “connect” with the person you spoke to.

Overall the online version of CES seems scaled back compared to 2021. The online experience will be enhanced when the on-demand streaming content becomes available. Once again CES has made an admirable attempt at adapting to an ever-shifting landscape and creating new experiences for the attendees.

Laura Kobylecky is a contributing writer to Tech Trends. She is particularly interested in new and emerging technology and culture. Connect with her on LinkedIn 

The post #CES2022: A Hybrid Event appeared first on Tech Trends.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced (or perhaps merely accelerated the inevitable) seismic shift towards remote working. It showed how unsustainable – and in many cases entirely unnecessary – it was to write off large portions of each working day to commuting. It is little wonder, then, that as life begins to return to “normal” many of us find ourselves questioning the financial, environmental, and psychological costs of traditional work environments, and gravitate towards new setups which are either hybrid or entirely virtual.

Yet remote working has a prominent “Achilles Heel,” in that most videoconferencing tools and solutions fall well short of the engagement, clarity, and security necessary to create meaningful connections and maximize productivity and creative interactions.

As post-pandemic life returns to something like normality many of us find ourselves questioning the financial, environmental, and psychological costs of traditional work environments
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There are some who yearn to go back to the office due to that lack of a human connection, and business owners and leaders are looking for a middle ground to bridge the two and create a hybrid work environment that fulfills everyone’s needs and lead to better productivity.

Raviv Nadav – Kino by Kinetx Co Founder & Chief Solutions Architect

That is the problem that drives Raviv Nadav, Founder and CEO of Kinetx’ Kino, a platform that he believes could become the solution that bridges the gaps between hybrid work and a remote virtual work environment.

We're gravitating towards new setups that are either hybrid or entirely virtual
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According to him, the Kino video space platform is capable of supporting human connection by creating virtual conversations that feel much more personal.

“Human interaction is organic and personal. Video communication should be too,” says Nadav, pointing to the video below as an example of how his platform enables those personal connections to happen in a natural way, much as they would in real life.

“Social interaction is predominately filled with many conversations happening at once,” he explains. “It’s not some rigid experience where only one person is permitted to speak at any given time. Instead, when a person walks into a crowded room, there is a hum from all the conversation. They can choose to join a group, say ‘hello,’ focusing their attention. As time goes on, they can leave and focus on other individuals or conversations.”

Kino replicates that fluid environment where participants can communicate and shape their virtual experience as they see fit. The tool’s streaming technology allows for a more natural human experience. While others offer a “telephone conference with video” model, Kino is a video space where distance is perceived by manipulating the audio and video of participants that are in the background.

“We developed a focus feature in which the user gets to choose who they like to focus on. Others’ (unfocused participants) video gets smaller and to the side and at 5% audio level. The experience of having focused conversation with other users in the background gives a sense of an in-person gathering where people can roam around and talk to each other freely, just through video,” he says.

So rather than sending a text message to someone and waiting for a response, one can just hop into their colleague’s space and start a conversation with a full face-to-face experience.

“Remote work like we have today is very disengaging as the only face to face option because video conferencing services are glitchy and awkward. There’s no personal feel of talking to someone and really connecting. Chats and casual calls just don’t cut it. As an employer, I love being in touch with my team, seeing their faces and having those laughing moments at work where we just hang and chat. Well, we at Kinetx Co, do it remotely through our Kino platform where we can engage in one-on-one conversation but still have the ambience of an office. We work remote – but never alone.”

And that is the utopian picture that he paints of the techology’s potential to bring people together, rather than keeping them apart.

“Since the 1960’s we have had the trend of the Global Village, where all parts of the world got interconnected and, in a sense, unified. I think our economy and society is getting there,” he says referring the fact that his own team is dispersed all over the world but routinely shares the same virtual office space on Kino. “We should remember technology is an “add-on” to our lives but it should never replace the small joys in life like meeting one another in person,” he says, adding that we’ve never before been able to connect the way we are able to today.

There are some who yearn to go back to the office due to that lack of a human connection
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“As technology evolves, and we with it, new opportunities arise, and tools for real-time communication like Kino can push the global market to the next stage of international hiring and collaborating, thus distributing wealth and perhaps expediting human evolution to the next step. Working as one has always brought great achievements in the past. This is no different. We’re simply Better Together.”

Human interaction is organic and personal. Video communication should be too
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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 Conversations vs Chaos: Creating Meaningful Virtual Connections appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Daniel Sieberg, Co-founder at GoodTrust

The Covid-19 global pandemic of 2020 brought degrees of loss and heartache into everyone’s lives in untold ways. The scale was beyond comprehension, whether you or your family were directly affected by it or if, like so many of us, you watched in horror as the daily news presented its drumbeat of infections, hospitalizations, and death.

As those tragic events unfolded during months of lockdowns and quarantine we grew more intimate with our digital worlds as they became a kind of sanctuary. We tapped into social media in new ways (albeit not always productive or healthy ones). We relied on online shopping for everything from toilet paper to oat milk to running shoes. We searched for medical information and health updates on a constant basis. And we clung to our personal devices like life preservers. The constant glow of our screens became the new campfire.

While these technological accessories and services provided something of a lifeline, they also forced us into a greater merger of an offline life and an online one. For so many of us it’s sometimes hard to know the difference anymore. We work more from home (or live more at work?), need constant connectivity and laptops for remote education and rely on telemedicine in countless forms.

The constant glow of our screens became the new campfire
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Our social circles are often managed online, the entertainment we love is streamed into our homes and we capture so much of our activities, interests and precious moments through mobile devices and apps. On average we each spend 6 hours and 42 minutes online each day.

But while we got used to the idea of living online, we now need to get used to the concept of dying online. There are an estimated 30 million dead people on Facebook today, yet that number is still relatively small considering the platform’s 2.7 billion monthly users. By 2100 there will be between 1.4 and 4.9 billion dead people on Facebook alone – likely more dead accounts than live ones.

Our social circles are often managed online
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In the spring of 2020 the devastating health crisis coupled with deaths in our immediate families got some of us thinking about what would happen to our digital lives if our analog ones ceased to exist. As a result, Rikard Steiber, a former Google executive, and a number of us former Googlers and others started a company called GoodTrust. We want to make it possible to act now on your own behalf – or someone else’s – to save everything that matters to you. It’s a more complex and challenging dilemma than we’d originally envisioned with the hurdles and obstacles only mounting in rapid fashion as the pace of innovation accelerates – and we want to help.

On average we each spend 6 hours and 42 minutes online each day
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We’re creating an online existence that feels, well, pretty good, in addition to our real life. Albeit not always authentic. But as we’re able to see our efforts and those of others presented to the world we’d like it to continue on this journey for as long as possible and maybe beyond. It’s time to solve this mounting digital dilemma by saving what matters to each of us.

There are an estimated 30 million dead people on Facebook today
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The GoodTrust platform allows anyone to carry out their digital afterlife wishes from memorializing a Facebook page to extracting photos from Google to shuttering subscription accounts like LinkedIn or Netflix. GoodTrust combines scalable technology with in-house experts to tackle both the decision-making process and the legal complexities. We don’t like ruminating on death because it feels depressing, but no matter what happens on the other side – whether it’s a multiverse or heaven or reincarnation – death comes for us all.

By 2100 there will be between 1.4 and 4.9 billion dead people on Facebook alone
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Yet just as each of our offline lives is unique so too can it be said about our online ones. The decisions you make will be up to you but in the absence of making those choices you may be left with a digital legacy that sacrifices reputation, finances and even relationships. The stakes are high, as your digital stuff like photos, emails, documents, and profiles are no less meaningful than those saved in the physical world.

The @MyGoodTrust platform allows anyone to carry out their digital afterlife wishes
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There are several critical aspects to consider from the role of tech companies (where I’ve worked for many years) to outdated privacy laws to emotional considerations with friends, family, and loved ones. But none of it is going away and there is a growing need for all parties involved to find better ways to work together and develop solutions. The tidal wave of this issue is hitting us now – even beyond the pandemic – as we shift so much of our lives to places we can’t even touch. There’s no going back. And we need to unlock a better way to help all of us better manage our last wishes – even if it’s in the so-called “virtual” world, the reasons it all matters to us are very real indeed.

Daniel Sieberg is Co-founder and content lead at GoodTrust and author of The Digital Diet: the four-step plan to break your tech addiction and regain balance in your life and a forthcoming book on the digital afterlife with Rikard Steiber.

The post Taking Control of Your Digital Afterlife appeared first on Tech Trends.

As COVID-19 sweeps through nations, quickly making established ways of working, studying, socializing, and conducting business impractical or even impossible, people turned to technological innovation for alternatives.

Here we look at three key areas that have been brought to the forefront during the pandemic but are likely to stay with us for the long-term.

Immersive Technology/ XR post-pandemic

Alan Smithson, CEO of MetaVRse, says that XR is specifically pivotal because of its potential to replicate the physical dynamics of collaboration in a virtual environment, enabling you to be fully present and engaged with others as you would in real life.

As most of us struggle with the challenge of adapting to this ‘new normal’ where much of the world’s population finds itself unable to safely hold face-to-face meetings, Smithson explains that XR Collaboration tools are emerging as viable alternatives — not to replace current video conferencing, but to augment them through spatial understanding. “By sharing fully immersive spaces with others, we begin to bridge the physical gap between us – opening up a whole new world of communication possibilities. With XR conferencing, people may not be able to see your face, but they can certainly see your body language, and that is really powerful.”

This power, however, is only properly leveraged where creators are mindful of the unique properties of immersive technology, rather than trying to retrofit it to existing tools and procedures.

“The biggest question we should ask is can we or even should we try and replicate the presence of live events via digital means (be it digital video conferencing, AR and VR)? If we merely try to ‘copy and paste’ one experience into the other, we are doomed to fail,” says Galit Ariel, founder and Creative Director of WondARlands Spatial Innovation Lab.

Ariel says that in her view, simply having embodied avatars standing in a virtual conference room and watching a virtual slide show does not make the infinite possibilities virtual platforms have to offer.

With XR conferencing, people may not be able to see your face, but they can certainly see your body language, and that is really powerful
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Furthermore, the move to digital platforms brings opportunities to “control the stage” in ways that are unavailable to speakers and presenters in real life. While pre-tested or pre-recorded talks and events can be potentially more polished, they also lack the magic and serendipity of a physical setting, interaction and immersion. That is a much harder challenge in some ways, Ariel says, as that content then needs to compete for the individual’s attention span with all the great digital content that is already available online, and the things that are happenings in their separate realities.

“When I see online and virtual panels and presentations using the same method of content delivery, I feel it is a miss. [Although] I understand that most event organizers had to find quick solutions. Going forward, they will need to make smarter and more creative choices about what content is valuable and meaningful in a digital context, and what digital tools make sense. We also need to remember that people are quickly becoming ‘Zoomed out’ and dealing with digital fatigue.  I hope, and I am certain, we will see more creative and experimental ways to deliver content via digital means.”

Delivering new digital content through AR and VR will also depend on network innovation and optimization. Globally, plans to deploy 5G are mixed. While the U.S. is still moving forward with its plans to deploy 5G on the same timeline pre-COVID-19, other countries are facing delays in spectrum auctions, investment, and supply chains. In order to create seamless XR experiences in and outside of our homes, there needs to be significant strides in 5G infrastructure and investment into education about different applications and uses for this technology.

Smart city technology for tracking and security

In order to tackle the unprecedented challenges of this global pandemic, it is vital that local, state and federal governments are able to leverage the vast amounts of data already in their systems to make better-informed decisions that help them flatten the curve and take action in real-time to mitigate outcomes and maximize limited resources.

“Data is key toward effectively tracking and managing a government’s pandemic response,” explains Amr Salem, CEO of smart city technology company Quantela, whose AI-powered recommendation engine deploys predictive analysis to forecast future capacity requirements for traffic, crime, weather, disaster and emergency response. The company currently has over 95 live deployments, including installations in Albuquerque, NM., Erie, PA., and Las Vegas, NV.

Quantela recently launched a platform called CoVER (Coronavirus Emergency Response Platform) which enables authorities to input all their data from across their field of operations, including medical resource tracking, testing kits and results, outbreak locations, quarantine locations and duration, and critical asset locations, into one accessible database.

The move to digital platforms brings opportunities to control the stage in ways that are unavailable to speakers and presenters in real life
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The platform – which can be tailored to the needs of each locality and deployed within as few as three days – incorporates any data source that influences their time-critical operational decision-making can be fed into a cloud-based system that gives them increased insight and control over these fast-moving situations.

The dashboard visualizes complex data sets and is able to reliably predict where the virus will be, allowing leaders to reallocate resources accordingly to prevent shortages. Users can drill down from macro-level data (across states, counties, etc.) all the way down to an analysis of city sectors and even individual patients to ascertain how to best deploy resources to manage and contain outbursts and manage infection clusters, taking actions such as sending real-time notifications to health workers in a particular area.

Data is key toward effectively tracking and managing a government’s pandemic response
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Quantela’s digital urban services technology also includes a Citizen App which can be installed on their phones and allows individuals to perform self-assessments and self-report. Citizens can also use the app to receive information about the current situation in their area, including official government updates and notifications, “red zone” alerts, health advice, and the location of their nearest testing and treatment facilities. Field responders, meanwhile, can use CoVER to record their temperature and other vital statistics. Going forward, it may be possible to leverage such capabilities to detect and stop further outbreaks at a much earlier stage by monitoring how positive patients are recovering, and who is traveling.

“Cities will be able to predict future scenarios based on current spreading patterns, understand the impact on critical medical assets, speed up the allocation of patients to hospitals with available capacity, track quarantined patients, and distribute assets where it’s needed the most,” Salem concludes.

Hygiene innovation

Perhaps the most noticeable shift in our routine brought on by the spread of COVID-19 has been in personal hygiene. We’ve been made forcibly aware that the very act of touching a surface can contaminate it for extended periods of time. And while frequent hand washing mitigates contagion to some degree, our devices and wearables are much more difficult to effectively disinfect on a regular basis.

This is a problem that Amy Hedrick, CEO and Co-Founder of California-based smart tech hygiene company Cleanbox Technology had been working on for years, however.

With a background in media production and storytelling, Amy was an early adopter of immersive technology. In 2016, she foresaw the need in the nascent industry for a solution that would allow users to safely and hygienically share headsets without risking contagion transfer.

Cleanbox went on to patent a technology that uses UVC light in an LED to decontaminate hard-to-clean products worn on the face or head. With a focus on high-risk contagion transfer points; its core products were designed for Augmented & Virtual Reality Head Mounted Devices (HMDs). Cleanbox also includes a hydrophobic coating for the soft materials of the headset, to keep contagions at the surface rather than seeping into the electronics. Cleanbox products have been proven to safely eliminate 99.99+ percent of viruses, bacteria, and fungi within seconds.

“We actually started with the most difficult form factor first,” says Hedrick, “Virtual and augmented reality headsets are made up of many different materials and delicate electronics that have multiple surfaces that are hard to reach. They are much more difficult to clean than say cell phones”.

UVC is a wavelength of light that does not occur naturally in the atmosphere, so viruses do not have a resistance to it. Unlike UVA and UVB rays (sunlight & tanning bed lights), which are not generally used as disinfectants, UVC is safe for decontaminating materials including fabrics, plastics, and acrylic. The use of UVC in an LED instead of traditional mercury tubes or bulbs has the advantages of generating no heat or harmful toxins, as well as keeping the product environmentally-friendly, Hedrick explains.

Cleanbox products have been proven to safely eliminate 99.99+ percent of viruses, bacteria, and fungi within seconds
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With the global shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) – in particular, N95 respirators (N95s) – and the re-use of masks without proper decontamination placing users at increased risk due to viral load build-up, Cleanbox quickly pivoted and designed a retrofit for cleaning masks, allowing healthcare workers and first responders to safely disinfect their N95s. Cleanbox’s CX1 with retrofits have been donated to institutions such as Children’s National and Northwestern University Medical Center. In parallel, Cleanbox developed CleanDefense, a machine due to launch this summer which can decontaminate up to 100 masks per hour.

Going forward, Hedrick believes this is a solution that will be important not just for first responders, but also in care homes, dispatch centers, restaurants, airlines and other facilities that continue to have a heightened need to protect their employees and patrons against contagions such as COVID-19. CleanDefense’s portable design makes it ideal for airports, retail centers, entertainment venues, hotels, restaurants, and any other business requiring workers to wear masks.

“This technology is really going to become essential for all our devices, from mobile phones and tablets to earbuds and glasses, as we move into a new reality where we will have to learn how to better protect ourselves and each other,” Hedrick concludes.

Turbulent times are often a catalyst for innovation, and this pandemic has proven to be no exception. Unfortunately – in spite of the fact that we’re now seeing many countries moving towards easing restrictions and attempting to restart some semblance of “business as usual” – the long-term effects of COVID-19 are going to be felt for many months and even years. What this crisis has also uncovered is that many of those technological “emergency workarounds” actually present us with better and more efficient ways of doing things, and it is unlikely that they will be set aside, even when the virus is finally brought under control.

This article was originally published on Futurithmic

From #XR applications to new safety protocols and high-tech cleaning methods, the innovations that will come out of COVID-19 will change our lives as we know it. https://t.co/GjyYARWxWu pic.twitter.com/vLhY1QPFze

— Futurithmic (@futurithmic) June 11, 2020

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 XR 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 Emerging Post-Pandemic Innovations appeared first on Tech Trends.

COVID-19 has wreaked serious havoc since it broke out globally, and although the world is getting used to the disease, working towards procedures to curb its spread and fatalities, we are still some way from having a more permanent solution such as a vaccine.

Until then, the virus will continue to impact every aspect of our lives, as well as all sectors of the economy, and tech is no exception. The technology industry has a vital role to play, pushing innovations to help us all tackle what are sure to be more difficult times ahead.

We’ve already seen some examples of this emerging, so read on for three examples of what shape these innovations can take.

Heat Sensing AR Glasses

Augmented Reality glasses have been a trend under development for a while now, exponentially coming down in price and packing more capabilities, processing power, and sophisticated sensors in ever-smaller devices that are much less cumbersome.

In addition to capturing images, it is possible to have heat-sensing cameras built into such headsets, and it is easy to see how this will become invaluable in helping to screen people who might be showing early symptoms that could indicate they are infected with a virus such as COVID-19. This would go a long way in minimizing contact and curbing the spread of the disease.

There is much discussion around what responsibility tech giants as Twitter and Facebook have in regulating and moderating unfounded claims and hold people accountable
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This will aid in the easy identification of threats and possibly help in the safer long-term reopening of various sectors that have been forced to shut down or dramatically reduce their operations since the pandemic began, and is crucial to restarting the global economy without overloading already-stretched healthcare systems.

One instance which would call for the use of such technology is football, where fans are no longer allowed in stadiums at the moment since large gatherings without screening would make it very likely for the virus to spread. Yet this lack of fans in stadia will see football clubs struggling to keep up their finances and the game behind closed doors has left much to be desired. Until we can all get back to life as normal, many of us are still facing some time stuck at home, but the pandemic has not been able to stop folks from deriving excitement from playing online games. You could, for example, choose to play some games at an online casino in your spare time to get your head off the everyday worries and soothe your nerves amid this pandemic.

Implementing worldwide video conferencing standards 

Many of us have had to embrace the idea of working from home in these turbulent times, and in the middle of this transition we quickly discovered that phone conversations won’t always cut it. And although the quality of video conferencing tools has certainly improved in recent years, we still have a long way to go in order to replicate the sense of connection and presence that we get from face-to-face communications that are (at least for the moment) quite literally on hold.

Many of us have had to embrace the idea of working from home in these turbulent times
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There is still a lot of room for improvement, particularly where it comes to interoperability. If, for example, you receive a video call invitation via Facetime, using an Apple device would be convenient on your end. Meanwhile, Zoom would need a Zoom client, and WebEx requires a WebEx client. Even the likes of Skype and Teams cannot interconnect irrespective of the fact that they’re both Microsoft products.

This is a problem that has been largely addressed in mobile phones and other networked devices, so video conferencing should move in the same direction.

Taking the fight  to peddlers of fake news and recommendations

Sadly, there has been a lot of fake information about this pandemic. And while some of it can be dismissed as somewhat funny, much of it can actually prove harmful, and the proliferation of false information has been proven to put people in real danger.

Social media platforms have been the major disseminator of such fake information and conspiracy theories about potential cures, the origins of the virus, or health advice for curbing its spread. There is much discussion around what responsibility such tech giants as Twitter and Facebook have in regulating, moderating, or at the very least flagging such unfounded claims and hold people accountable.

There has been a lot of fake information about this pandemic
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Decisive action would serve as a deterrent to those gleefully jumping on the ‘misinformation bandwagon,’ and here, too, technology can be our ally. There are many Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools that can be deployed to identify, flag, and neutralize these invalid ideas and recommendations at scale, and doing this could potentially save lives in the long run. Whether there is enough social and political will to push tech companies into doing so, however, is another matter.

The post Fighting COVID-19 with Technology appeared first on Tech Trends.

Back in March, Wendy Morgan, CEO and co-founder of Shift got a call from a fellow entrepreneur asking if she had thought of using VR to train people working in the pop-up hospitals being set up to deal with the extra influx of coronavirus patients that states were expecting from the pandemic.

The immersive training consists of sessions lasting between 15 and 20 minutes in VR which will be used to teach key skills such as choice and use of PPE, patient personal care and hygiene, and COVID-19 test procedures
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This prompted the Shift team to adapt their technology – originally developed for training teachers to recognize and mitigate implicit bias in the classroom – to help with the COVID-19 crisis.

“Our goal was to provide virtual reality COVID-19 training for healthcare workers and those working in post-acute care and long-term care facilities who are being asked to engage in care that is outside their normal practice as well as for those whose training is out of date,” Morgan explains.

The company, which is based in the small town of Bend, Oregon, quickly partnered with Lane Workforce Partnership and got support from the Facebook Foundation through the East Cascade Workforce Improvement Board. The curriculum content and scenarios have been supplied by the University of Portland School of Nursing. This got the attention of the Oregon COVID-19 task force as they were looking for training solutions during the crisis.

Cleanbox technology is likely to become the industry standard for making it safe for different people to use the same equipment.
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At around the same time, Amy Hedrick, CEO and co-founder of CleanBox was also doing her bit to help with the crisis by retrofitting some of their machines – which use UVC light to disinfect VR headsets between uses – to be donated to hospitals, where they made it possible for healthcare workers to decontaminate and safely reuse their N-95 masks.

Hedrick explains that Cleanbox has since gone on to announce a new machine called CleanDefense, specifically designed to disinfect Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and help healthcare workers deal with the ongoing shortages of these essential supplies.

“The desire to help first responders and other front line workers is personal. Almost everyone in our team has been impacted in some way by this pandemic. As individuals and as a company, we wanted to make a difference and to it quickly,” says Hedrick.

The need for Cleanbox’s original use, however (making it safe for different people to use the same VR headset) is stronger than ever, and will likely become the new industry standard going forward.

There's a large role for XR as the pandemic unfolds and as the world finds its new normal
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In fact, when Morgan was setting up the logistics for delivering Shift’s virtual training, one of the first questions funders asked was how they would make sure the headsets did not spread COVID. Cleanbox, she recalls, was already on their radar, and the two entrepreneurs were introduced via a mutual connection at the WXR fund, which primarily invests in promising XR ventures by female entrepreneurs.

“We needed to create a training where geography is not a barrier, financial issues are not a barrier, time is not a barrier,” Morgan explains. “VR is ideal for preparing healthcare workers for high-risk environments without exposing them to real-world risks. In a normal setting, this training requires healthcare trainers and supplies, both of which are now in short supply. Through VR, people can learn and practice in a realistic environment, with full movement, before having to step into a hospital.”

So far Shift has developed training for the Oculus Quest on the donning and doffing of personal protective equipment, proper hand hygiene, contamination in a COVID-19 ward and hospital setting. The immersive training consists of sessions lasting between 15 and 20 minutes in VR which will be used to teach key skills such as choice and use of PPE, patient personal care and hygiene, and COVID-19 test procedures.

Following feedback from their first beta testing they will be gathering feedback and making updates before running a second, larger test and starting rolling out in Eugene, Crook County, Bend, and Portland. Within the next three to four weeks at 15 sites statewide. Each site will have five headsets and the site staff will be trained on how to properly sanitize the equipment with Cleanbox technology between uses. With locations capable of training multiple people at once, hundreds of people throughout the state should be able to access the curriculum each day.

VR can prepare healthcare workers for high-risk environments without exposure to real-world risks
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Shift’s COO and co-founder Maggie Hubbell adds that in the near term, this will provide a no-barrier solution to help bring the skills needed to people on the front lines. “Long-term, this training will continue to be vital to bring our national systems back into balance.”

“There is a very large role for XR as the pandemic continues to unfold and as the world finds its new normal. In healthcare particularly, the need to utilize VR for things like Fundamental Skills training for those in nursing school, orientation for the onboarding process for nurses into hospitals, as well as device training that cannot now be done face to face,” she concludes.

This article was originally published on VRScout

COVID-19 VR Training With Virus-Free Headsets via @alicebonasio https://t.co/SbKxAyMBGw pic.twitter.com/gUNwtrKFrU

— VRScout (@VRScout) May 27, 2020

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 XR 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 Virus-Free Virtual Training for Healthcare Workers appeared first on Tech Trends.

There is an unprecedented demand for ventilators due to the coronavirus pandemic, yet the physical machines are really only part of the equation.

There is an unprecedented demand for ventilators due to the coronavirus pandemic
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In the United Kingdom, the country’s National Health Service (NHS) is having to quickly redeploy doctors and nurses from other disciplines as well as those coming out of retirement to provide support in the Intensive Care Units.

In the UK, the country’s National Health Service is having to quickly redeploy doctors and nurses from other disciplines
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To help medical staff (re)acquire the necessary skills to do that, FundamentalVR, a start-up that develops immersive simulations to train surgeons, has worked with Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust to develop an online tool that allows medical professionals, to gain the key knowledge they need for ventilating patients in around 30 minutes.

The program which consists of short how-to videos and educational graphics is being rolled out at Imperial College London prior to its deployment nationally and internationally to help combat Covid-19.

“It takes years to specialise a clinician in intensive care; while this new training course is not designed to replace this expertise, it will enable health systems across the world to act now and provide the care that their patients desperately need,” says project lead Professor Ara Darzi, co-director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London. “With greater capacity, we can help more people survive this illness, and prevent health systems from becoming overwhelmed during this crisis,” he added.

FundamentalVR is also helping hospitals with another impact of the COVID-19 situation, as student surgeons are seeing their studies interrupted as hospitals are reserved for essential care. With non-urgent surgeries cancelled, the company, based out of London and Boston, recently made its Fundamental Surgery platform multiuser. This allows students to exercise their skills at home while in isolation using the company’s @HomeVR system which was launched two weeks ago for standalone VR headsets such as Oculus Quest and HTC Vive Focus Plus.

Student surgeons are seeing their studies interrupted as hospitals are reserved for essential care
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Every user interaction is measured and recorded, such as surgical gaze, respect for tissue and efficiency of movement
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It allows students and teachers to join each other in the virtual OR, where they can interact, ask questions, view each other’s procedures and get feedback all done remotely and safely. This remote system is also currently live at Imperial College London and a dozen @HomeVR headsets have been sent at the request of a New York teaching hospital. The procedures available are being phased in for existing customers starting with Total Hip Arthroplasty (Anterior Approach).

Fundamental Surgery has been deployed with medical institutions around the world, including Mayo Clinic and UCLA in the U.S., UCLH in the U.K. and Sana in Germany. Their hardware-agnostic software solution fuses Cutaneous (tactile vibration) and Kinesthetics (force feedback & position) haptic technologies. The platform, which can be optimized for different stages of the learning process, mimics the physical cues of surgical actions, medical tools, and tissue variations.

Studies have shown that this aids learning in helping trainees develop the muscle memory essential for surgical skills. The platform utilizes off-the-shelf hardware (PCs/laptops, VR headset and haptic arms), making it less than a tenth of the cost of current learning practices.

Fundamental Surgery has been deployed with medical institutions around the world
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The platform’s data dashboard tracks hundreds of data points to provide a high level of analysis to course directors or trainees
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Every user interaction is measured and recorded, such as surgical gaze, respect for tissue and efficiency of movement, widely connected with surgical proficiency, to provide accurate real-time feedback all within a single display that can be accessed anywhere by any device, which again lends itself nicely to the new normal of remote learning and working which is likely to persist in the coming months.

When COVID-19 struck we were delighted to work with the team at Imperial College London on the rapid development of this important Ventilator Trainer
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“When COVID-19 struck we were delighted to work with the team at Imperial College London on the rapid development of this important Ventilator Trainer and are pleased to see it roll out to help build confidence and competence with Healthcare professionals at this challenging time,” concludes Richard Vincent, CEO and Co-Founder of Fundamental VR, saying this is a good example of how technology companies are coming together to support the work of healthcare professionals and work through the many challenges presented by the pandemic.

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 XR 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 Training Healthcare Workers With XR appeared first on Tech Trends.

“Even in times of global pandemic, no one has to be alone. COVID-19 has forced us apart, but technology makes it possible for us to work, learn, and interact with one another, while remaining physically distant.”

From technical terms to hardware and the right platforms to meet your specific needs, the guide should serve as a primer for newbies and a refresher for jaded pros
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That was the motivation that brought together a group of XR industry professionals and influencers (myself included) to collate and share the resources needed to help more people take advantage of XR collaboration tools, right when they are needed the most.

The guide will continue to be a collaborative effort, so make sure to sign up for updates and send your feedback via @XRCollaboration
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The “Global Resource Guide to XR Collaboration” is a comprehensive guide to using Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) collaboration platforms for business and education.

“XR Collaboration tools are emerging as viable alternatives — not to replace current video conferencing, but to augment through spatial understanding. By sharing fully-immersive spaces with others, we begin to bridge the physical gap opening up a whole new world of communication possibilities.”

Produced by the XR Ignite and assembled by coalition members from technology companies and associations – including AREA, AWE, Deutsche Telekom, Cleanbox, MetaVRse, Qualcomm Technologies, VR/AR Association and XR Bootcamp – the guide and website are meant to become a one-stop-shop for all your XR collaboration questions and needs.

XR Collaboration tools are emerging as viable alternatives — not to replace current video conferencing, but to augment through spatial understanding
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From technical terms to hardware and the right platforms to meet your specific needs, the guide should serve as a primer for newbies and a refresher for jaded pros. But just as much as this is about collaboration, the guide itself was (and will continue to be) very much a collaborative effort, so make sure to sign up for updates and send your feedback via @XRCollaboration

And to end on a specially positive note as we head into a very strange Easter weekend…

“We are all in this together, and we will continue to thrive, no matter what the future holds. Stay safe and productive, and remember: it is the personal connections we make each day that make us human. So let’s put this technology to use to bring us together like never before.”

You can download the guide for free and access the latest updated resources at xrcollaboration.com

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 XR 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 Collaborating in XR appeared first on Tech Trends.

virustrack.live is an open-source resource that lets anyone compare and visualize the spread of COVID-19 across different geographies. The dashboard dynamically cross-references reputable data from repositories including Johns Hopkins University Center for Science Systems and Engineering, BNO News, World Health Organization COVID-2019 Situation Reports, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), US hospital data from Community Benefit Insight and US county data aggregators. All these sources get checked by the platform every five minutes, so what you get is the most up-to-date resource for tracking the COVID-19 pandemic on the web today.

virustrack.live lets you instantly compare and visualize data across regions, states, and countries, empowering responders to flatten the curve and make more informed choices
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The COVIDvu Virus Tracking Team was founded by open source advocate and angel investor Eugene Ciurana, Mystic Coders software entrepreneur Andrew Lombardi, and Farad.ai chief scientist Dr. Juvid Aryaman. VirusTrack.live was built in less than three weeks with volunteer contributions from scientists and engineers worldwide.

“We developed VirusTrack.live because existing maps and dashboards are visually striking but the information they present is qualitative, not quantitative .They don’t display trends or let you compare multiple locations side-by-side in real-time,” explains Ciurana, who came up with the idea for VirusTrack while self-isolating with his family in San Francisco. “VirusTrack allows users to select and compare states, countries, US regions, or continental regions within the same context. The unprecedented severity of this pandemic means information is in constant flux, we wanted this user-friendly decision support system to be accessible to everyone.”

The project is entirely non-commercial, non-advertising, and open-source, and the team is keen to share the resource with global authorities, media outlets, and individuals in order to empower them to make better real-time decisions informed by accurate data.

“Our focus was on data quality and on presenting current, actionable information with a minimum of clutter, ” “Maps look cool, but the information they present is qualitative, not quantitative. The charts from virustracker.live are designed for side-by-side comparison and use the most current data available.”

“We aren’t selling anything or even asking for donations. Anybody can use the tool in any way they like,” Ciurana says, adding that all the virustracker.live website content is freely available for re-publication under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence, which means anyone, anywhere can use the website output for any purpose as long as they credit the COVIDvu Open Source Virus Tracking Team.

This is a work-in-progress and Ciurana hopes to attract a community of scientists and developers to add further features that will make virustrack.live more relevant and useful.

This is a key aspect of the platform, as it can serve as a crowdsourcing action hub for Data Scientists and Engineers keen to contribute towards efforts in mitigating this crisis, building their own tools and running their own experiments against the CSSE datasets. The team invites contributions from the general public, NGOs and government officials, health scientists, and technologists looking for ways to help in this crisis.

“Our focus is on data quality and on presenting current and actionable information with a minimum of clutter,” explains Andrew Lombardi, project co-founder. The charts from VirusTrack.live are designed for easy interpretation.”

The intention is that as more data is collected in the coming days, this accurate, readily available and easily comparable data will empower responders, policymakers, media, and citizens to make agile and better-informed decisions to tackle the challenges ahead.

Dr. Juvid Aryaman, chief scientist at London-based Farad.ai and project co-founder, continued. “We saw this opportunity to distil accurate information from the trove of noisy and contradictory data sources out there. We aim to keep the public informed and to improve planning. In the next few days VirusTrack.live will generate high-confidence predictions of how the pandemic will evolve,” he says.

“We aren’t selling anything or even asking for donations. Anybody can use the tool in any way they like,” Ciurana says, adding that all website content is freely available for re-publication under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.

The VirusTrack.live team is keen to share the resource with global authorities, media outlets, and individuals in order to encourage them to make better decisions, informed by accurate data
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We are in uncharted territory with this pandemic, but as COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, we are also collecting a wealth of data that can be leveraged to give us insights into which strategies work
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By studying patterns and comparing the contagion curves from various geographies, it could be possible to more accurately forecast what comes next. Informed, data-driven timely action powered by collaboration might just be humanity’s best hope.

VirusTrack.live welcomes information about data sources, suggestions, and general feedback via feedback@virustrack.live

Alice Bonasio is a XR 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 Staying Ahead of the COVID-19 Curve appeared first on Tech Trends.