During these days, Google Incorporated the “Smart Reply” technology on its chatting application Hangouts Chat. For those who never heard about this app, Hangouts Chat is “an intelligent and secure communications tool, built for teams.” which defined by Google Play, Google’s online app shop.

As most users are able to recognize, Google is clearly planning to implement its AI-assisted writing and text prediction technology across all of its tools and services. I think most of the Gmail users already experience that. Firstly, at the end of every email you got, there will be three options for quick response which you can choose. Also, on the half way of your writing, Gmail will show some light-grey color words inside the editing area to guess whether those are words you would like. Thus, after Gmail which was enriched with these features, “Smart Reply” will also be implemented on the Hangouts Chat.

“Smart Reply” is a system that utilizes machine learning methods. Its function as proposing three possible replies to a received message, and allowing the user to simply click on the one they treat as the most appropriate.  For the benefits, it will save users’ time like the Gmail system will try to finish phrases and sentences for Gmail users. And they benefit should also be found on Hangouts too.

However, Smart Reply doesn’t always offer the best possible suggestions. Since all answers are expected from machine-learning AIs, and AIs don’t understand people’s emotion, so Smart Reply always can’t get the point and tone of a message. In Hangouts Chat, this may become even more evident, because there are too many special abbreviation and new words coming out every day. Thus, it will be interesting to see how the system copes with the added complexity of having fewer words to help it deduce what is going on.

Actually, service of Hangouts is going to end by 2020, but Google will not stop its step on putting AIs into its all service. Plus, Google has assured that Hangouts will still be available to users even if it is in the form of some other product.

Reference:

https://www.technadu.com/google-smart-reply-hangouts-chat/50783/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.dynamite&hl=en_US

The newest Nintendo Switch Pokémon Let’s Go for switch just release on November 16th, 2018. On the same release day, there is extremely cool device also came into every players’ sight – Pokéball Plus! Have you ever dream to become a professional Pokémon trainer and to walk around with your own Pikachu and explore the world? This is the time!

The Pokéball Plus is a watch-like Bluetooth sensor which work as a supplementary experience to Pokémon Go. It has LED lights, a physical vibration function, and one speaker. Inside the that tiny fancy ball, there is also a gyroscope for controlling affecting the device’s functionality via motion controls. As a regular a controller for the games, it works pretty well with newest Pokemon Let’s go game, which means instead of press button on 3DS, this time player can throw the ball-shape game consoler to catch Pokémon which definitely make the experience more like real. 

However, the coolest part I think is that it also works with the the new version of the Pokémon Go Plus. After seeting up, you can play Go Plus without light up you phone.
When pokémon and pokéstops were nearby, the controller will vibrate and it’s LED will also be lighted up.When catching a Pokémon in those games, players will be able to feel it moving within the ball-shape controller which makes player feel like they’ve caught a pokémon. Also, you can hold of a Pokemon with each controller. By touching top of Pokeball, it will vibrate and speak when a Pokemon is inside, making it look and feel as though the Pokemon is really, truly coming along with the trainer.

Additionally, the Nintendo has put a great effort on the development of technology on its device, especially on Switch Joy-Con. Even it is finger-device, they add a really sensitive and capable infrared sensor. The sensor can be harnessed to transmit simple video feeds to the Switch screen or even detect heat sources. In Tokyo Switch showcase event at January 2017, Nintendo system’s producer, Yoshiaki Koizumi, pointed out that the right Joy-Con’s “motion IR camera” could be used to detect the shape and distance of something held in front of it. He showed that the sensor could distinguish the shapes of a hand making gestures in the game Rock, Paper, Scissors. When it point at the player’s face, the system could track the opening and closing of a player’s mouth, which was used for an eating contest challenge in 1,2, Switch.

There weren’t that many games can reflect the value of infrared sensor until Labo, which is a project combines the various parts of the Switch console with folded cardboard, released. The secret that “motion IR camera” can indeed function as a camera was hided until player see a cardboard car inside Labo. After setting up, the sensor takes transmits a live, infrared feed of what it is pointed at to the Switch’s screen. In car mode, the IR sensor allows it to display which sources of heat it can see. And when player set the car into auto-drive, that heat-sensing mode, combined with vibrations of the Joy-Con controllers, can be harnessed to make the car move toward any heat source, like your hand, or your pets.

Reference link: 

https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/29/17380486/pokemon-go-plus-controller-wearable-joycon-switch

https://kotaku.com/the-switch-joy-con-s-infrared-sensor-is-cooler-than-we-1822669059

Visa and Mastercard have already released millions of credit and debit cards in more than 200 countries around the world. Both of them intent on creating bank cards that use your fingerprint instead of a PIN, which means they want to release some biometric cards.  It is a based on a new tech standard called EMV technology which stores users’ information inside a card’s chip then there is a system developed to work on cards that need to be inserted into a reader, before a user enters their PIN, and contactless payment methods, like NFC. To get this business started, a fingerprint of user has to be captured, so users must go to a bank and have their fingerprint scanned.

The technology behind is the biometric authentication, which is a security process that relies on the unique biological characteristics of an individual to verify the identity using personal measurements or other unique characteristics of your body, then logging you in a service, an app, a device and so on.

This is really a good way to support the card’s safety since it can definitely identify whether the people who do the purchase is the real user or not. Besides the ease of using, not only because the people who want to hack in to your device have to be in physical proximity in order to collect the information required to bypass the login, but also even be hacked already, we are still able to narrow down the circle of possible suspects by distinguish how biometric lock is bypassed.

However, it still has a lot of problems need to be solved. The hugest one as I thought is that biometrics will last a lifetime, which means unlike passwords we normally used can easily change, it is eternal and unchangeable. Once somebody has a copy of someone’s fingerprint, there’s not much he or she can do to stay safe, other than switching to passwords. Plus, the other big problems of biometric authentication are that the “Master fingerprints” can trick many phones and scanners. The definition for master fingerprint is something that the device will ask for multiple presses from different angles during firstly registering. Those samples will then be used as the original data set to compare with subsequent unlock attempts. However, smartphone sensors are too small for most of time, so they often rely on partial matches of fingerprints. According to the recent research which have discovered, a set of 5 “master fingerprints” can exploit these partial matches, and open about 65% of devices. Although the number is likely to go down in real life conditions, an open rate of 10% to 15% is still really huge which people should keep more attention about.

Reference link:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mastercard-biometric-card-testing-visa-gemalto-scanner-fingerprint-trial

https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/biometric-authentication/

The China International Import Expo (CIIE) is a trade fair ，which is the world’s first import-themed national-level expo，held in autumn annually since 2018 in Shanghai, China. The first China International Import Expo lasted for a week and successfully closed on November 10th. Like most of other various fairs, “Technology elements” are the highlights of the China International Import Expo with no exception.

There are thousands of companies from 58 countries bring creative productions with cutting-edge technologies like 5G, autonomous driving, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and VR/AR which related to smart cities, smart homes, smart travel, smart manufacturing, etc. For example, General Electric’s aero engine and the AW189 helicopter of Leonardo AG of Italy became the star of the exhibition. With the theme “AI is at your fingertips”, Google attracted a large audience with Google Translate, AI Calling Zodiac, VR Glasses and AR Home. Facebook also gather a huge amount of audience by its VR/AR equipment and artificial intelligence. Toyota Motor demonstrated its passenger’s physical examination function for its new intelligent network cars, which also receive a lot of attention.

Besides all those products which really close to our life, some super high-tech machine also be displayed in intelligent equipment show area inside CIIE. Eight of the world’s top 10 machine tool companies will take part in the first Expo. At least 10 companies released their latest products or technologies. Well-known companies in their own industry, like Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp, Japanese manufacturing company that  the first to sign up for this year’s CIIE, showed its most advanced small and medium-sized robots during the Expo. Waldrich Coburg from Germany showcased the largest piece of exhibition. Its 200-ton planer type milling machine, with a price tag of 2.6 million euros (£2.34 million), can process all kinds of sophisticated parts used in motor vehicles and machines.

No matter how this event has any political meaning behind, the exhibition itself is a display of emerging technology fever.  It not only shows that the cutting-edge technology market has huge application scenarios, but also confirms that people nowadays have high acceptance and strong interest on high-tech products, which is a good trend be favored by many technology companies and traditional companies that are trying to upgrade digitally. I wish the Expo could help technology can grow better globally and make people life better.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/world/china-watch/technology/first-china-international-import-expo-shanghai/

https://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2018-11-10/doc-ihnstwwp9385183.shtml?agt=61