One of the most practical technological products that I have ever used is something that I just recently purchased, and has already saved my life.  What I am talking about is the Tile.  The Tile is a flat, roughly one inch by one-inch square device that you attach to valuable possessions that you would hate to lose. You pair the Tile with your phone through their app, and once completed, your possessions become substantially more findable.  Say I put the tile in my wallet; when I lose my wallet, all I have to do is go to the Tile app and click the Tile associated with my wallet.  Once I do this, the app shows me where the Tile is when it was last connected.

When you are within 100 yards of the Tile, the app lets page it.  When you hit the button on the app, the Tile will loudly ring, allowing you to easily locate your device.  Tile uses the Internet of Things, receiving data (location of your tile) and relaying it to the app so it can easily be found by the owner.

Tile also allows for owners of their product to connect with other.  If somebody loses their wallet, and cannot get within 100 yards of it so they can page it, they can hit “Notify when Found” on the app.  As soon as a Tile owner comes within range of your device, they will get a notification, and will be able to contact you and send you the location that it was found so it can easily be returned.  The Tile really is so clutch to have, and has already helped me find my items that would have surely been lost.

Reference:

“Learn How Tile’s Bluetooth Tracking Device & Tracker App Helps You Find Your Lost Things | Tile.” Tile, www.thetileapp.com/en-us/how-it-works.

As we know, artificial intelligence is taking over technology.  AI is used vastly throughout many different types of products and companies, such as self-driving cars, music streaming apps, video games, and much more.  To my surprise, toothbrush companies are now using this type of technology,

Earlier this year, Oral-announced that they were creating a toothbrush using artificial intelligence to help individuals better brush their teeth, called the Genius X.  As we know, AI describes technology that is able to learn from itself, replicating human intelligence.  Oral-B is implementing this technology into a toothbrush to create the best possible toothbrush on the market.  Oral-B describes this toothbrush as being “trained with thousands of brushing behaviors, and so can identify your own unique brushing style. It can then figure out how that differs from best-practice, and begin coaching you on where you might improve,” (Davies 2019, Page 1).

The toothbrush uses sensors that are able to recognize the user’s brushing habits, such as time spent brushing their teeth, where they brushed the most, and spots that they missed.  The toothbrush then sends this information to an application, which compares the way that the user brushed their teeth to the best-practice.  It then lets you know exactly how you did, and what you need to improve on in the future.  The application also contains a feature that will walk you through brushing your teeth, teaching you the best practices.

This product illustrates two central topics that we have discussed in class: AI and Internet of Things.  Oral-B combines these two ideas in this product, using artificial intelligence to create healthy brushing habits, while using Internet of Things as a platform which we can see through the sensors and immediate transfer of data and information to an application. Many individuals have ethical problems with AI and computer intelligence, but when used to benefit people’s health, it is good for society.

Reference:

Davies, Chris. “Oral-B Put AI in a Toothbrush.” SlashGear, SlashGear, 25 Feb. 2019, www.slashgear.com/oral-b-genius-x-with-artificial-intelligence-toothbrush-digital-health-roadmap-25567364/.

The use of data and technology has implemented itself largely into the sports world, and it used by coaches and players everywhere.  Medium.com describes sports analytics as “the processes that identify and acquire the knowledge and insight about potential players’ performances based on the use of a variety of data sources such as game data and individual player performance data,” (Latheef 2017, pg. 1).  For a long time, scouting and coaching was done by observing the player, but today this is done largely through machine learning.

One team uses this technology in an extremely entrepreneurial way, and that is the Portuguese soccer club Benfica.  Most teams develop young talent for one reason, so they can one day play for their team.  Benfica, however, often finds themselves as sellers. They implement wearable technology onto their players that are able to measure every aspect of the game, and use this information to improve their talents and stock, selling them to other clubs for bundles of money.  This technology identifies players weaknesses, and creates a plan that works to address them.  It also identifies strengths, and provides coaches and players with ways that they can get better, as improvement is always possible.  In addition, this technology works to combat injury by recognizing the ways that people get hurt and how they can best be prevented.

I chose this article because it relates to many things that we have talked about in class.  First off, this is a prime example of the Internet of Things.  The use of the wearable trackers provides people with data that can be transformed into useful information, and this process does not involve any human action.  We have also talked a lot about machine learning, which is technology that is able to predict/decide based off previously received today.  Benfica’s technology allows them to predict how players will perform, allowing them to make decisions about certain players such as what they need to improve on, if they belong on the team, and much more.  With all of this extremely beneficial technology, it is no wonder why athletes are better now than they have ever been.

Reference:

Latheef, Nabeel Abdul. “The Number Games – How Machine Learning Is Changing Sports.” Medium, Medium, 21 July 2017, medium.com/@nabil_lathif/the-number-games-how-machine-learning-is-changing-sports-4f4673792c8e.