With eyes like saucers and a cute button nose, Pepper the robot is instantly recognisable.
SoftBank’s robot has come to be a kind of de facto face of robotics over the past few years thanks to its presence in shopping malls, cruise ships and in airports around the world. It recently arrived in the US for the first time and can be found in a handful of Westfield malls in San Francisco’s Bay Area, with more to come soon. At the same time, SoftBank is searching out new businesses and environments that Pepper could potentially play a role in, which is why I got to reconnect with the robot in at CES in Las Vegas.
But unlike my previous times meeting with Pepper, this encounter was a little more… risqué.
I first met Pepper in a Softbank store in Tokyo.
I’ve never been the biggest fan of the game Cards Against Humanit y, but I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to play with Pepper. The robot flashed up an unfinished sentence on its screen and a bunch of us gathered around, a web app open on our phones. We each tapped on a word from the card selection on our screen to cap off the sentence and Pepper picked the funniest response.
Hearing the explicit responses emerge from the robot’s mouth was akin to seeing Winnie the Pooh spouting profanities — by which I mean, hilarious. But that was hardly the point of the exercise.
« What we’re trying to showcase here is the connection as an [Internet of Things] device, » said Steve Carlin, vice president of SoftBank Robotics for North America. In the Cards Against Humanity demo, Pepper connected with our phones, in another it was Philip’s popular Hue lightbulbs and in a third — perhaps my favorite Pepper encounter to date — it was with a sensor-equipped tap, which proved to me that Pepper could well be worthy of a place in the hospitality industry.
A couple of months back I went to a small, well-regarded cocktail bar called the Little Red Door in Paris. The cocktail menu consisted of a booklet with a different picture on each page. To choose a cocktail, you pick the image that most appeals and tell the corresponding page number to the waitress.
Getting a drink from Pepper was a similar experience. Only instead of choosing images from a booklet, I chose from options on a screen — a mountain or a beach, a blue scribble or a yellow scribble. Pepper decided what I needed to quench my thirst was a Screwdriver , and when I agreed I was happy with it, a signal was sent to the tap, which began to pour.
For now, Pepper robots will be found in commercial environments such as this, but eventually SoftBank wants to sell the robot as a consumer product. « That’s always been the goal — to get a robot into people’s homes, » said Carlin. The trend that is seeing people moving away from screens and growing increasingly comfortable with talking directly to their technology really boosts the potential for this, he added.
So why the wait? The answer is partnerships, both with big companies and individual developers.
« What becomes important for any robot is the creativeness of the development community coming onto the platform, » said Carlin. « We are actively going out to these communities. When that development community brings its creativity to bear, we’ve got a great opportunity for the consumer market.  »
Pepper, the customer service robot, recently paid a visit to the US — using its ability to read your emotions to give retail workers a run for their money. Jeff Bakalar, Joshua Goldman and Mike Sorrentino chat about what careers robots might take next in this excerpt from Open_Tab.

© Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/pepper-robot-ces-2017-cards-against-humanity/
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Corsair is showing off two new series of ATX PC power supplies at the Consumer Electronics Show this year. The TX-M series has a semi-modular cable design and 80 Plus Gold certification, and capacities from 550 to 850W. The HX series (arguably a blast from the past ) is for PC builders going all-out, with fully modular cables, 80 Plus Platinum efficiency, and power output up to 1200W.
Corsair offers TX-M power supplies in 550W, 650W, 750W, and 850W capacities. The largest unit measures 6.3″ x 3.4″ x 5.9″ (16 cm x 8.6 cm x 15 cm), but all other models measure a slightly more compact 5.9″ x 3.4″ x 5.5″ (15 cm x 8.6 cm x 14 cm). Corsair backs all TX-M PSUs with a seven-year warranty. The semi-modular cabling means there’s a permanently-attached 24-pin ATX power connector, while CPU +12V power, SATA, PCIe, and Molex power connectors come on detachable cables.
The higher-end HX-series power supplies offer power efficiency as high as 94%. All the cabling is fully modular, too. Buyers can choose from 750W, 850W, 1000W, and 1200W models to suit their needs and wants. The mack-daddy HX 1200 measures 5.9″ x 3.4″ x 7.9″ (15 cm x 8.6 cm x 20 cm), while the remaining units measure 5.9″ x 3.4″ x 7.1″ (15 cm x 8.6 cm x 18 cm). The 1200W unit weighs over five pounds (2.3 kg), so buyers will need large cases made of sturdy materials to house and support that beast.
Corsair says both series are stuffed full of 105° C-rated capacitors from Japan. All HX models and all TX-M models except the TX550M have Corsair’s Hybrid Silent Fan Control feature that turns off the spinner when the power supply is under a light load.
The TX-M and HX models are available now in Corsair’s online store. The 80 Plus Gold-rated TX-Ms cost $80 to $130 and the 80 Plus Platinum HX series units cost $130 to $230 depending on capacity.

© Source: http://techreport.com/news/31233/corsair-hx-and-tx-m-series-of-psus-go-after-the-high-end
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Corsair has updated its Bulldog living-room Mini-ITX barebones gaming system with a new Z270 motherboard from partner MSI and has given it the Bulldog 2.0 label. The company first showed off the original verison at Computex in 2015. The original black-and-red color scheme had given way to a more HTPC-ready all-black look by the time it showed up in the TR labs last summer.
The Bulldog 2.0 kit still includes a unique angular Mini ITX case, a Hydro Series H6 SF all-in-one liquid CPU cooler, and an SF600 600W power supply. The original Z170 motherboard has given way for a Kaby Lake-ready Z270 model with built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi and a USB 3.1 Type-C port.
Buyers will need to hit their favorite PC parts vendor for an Intel LGA 1151 Skylake or Kaby Lake CPU. Corsair hopes shoppers will peruse its own offerings for the desktop DDR4 memory modules and storage needed to make a complete system. All Intel LGA 1151 CPUs have IGPs, and the Bulldog’s motherboard has an HDMI jack and a DisplayPort output, but a discrete graphics card makes things a lot more fun. For example, a Seahawk liquid-cooled GTX 1080 made by MSI with a hand from Corsair would certainly be a good fit for the Bulldog 2.0.
The Bulldog 2.0 is on sale now at Corsair’s site for $400 , though it’s currently listed as sold out. The kit is backed by a two-year manufacturer’s warranty.

© Source: http://techreport.com/news/31236/corsair-bulldog-2-0-gets-upgraded-with-a-z270-mobo
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Microsoft’s Surface Studio put other all-in-one systems on notice when it burst forth from Redmond at the software giant’s Windows conference at the end of October. Dell showed off something similar at Adobe’s Max Conference a short while later, but details on its offering were sparse. Now, the giant Texan computer manufacturer has shown its Canvas, a 27-inch « do » surface. The Canvas offers the same flat-tilting touch-screen functionality as the Surface Studio, but is meant to be used as a display with a variety of systems, instead of packing its own PC.
The Canvas’ 2560×1440 display can’t quite match the pixel density of the Surface Studio’s very impressive 4500×3000 pixel display, but Dell’s Totem rotary controller can reportedly do all the same tricks as Microsoft’s Surface Dial. The Canvas has very large bezels, though, making it look larger than it really is. The blank space around the actual display doesn’t completely go to waste, as part of it is a magnetic catch for the digitizer pen.
Dell’s press materials say that supporting sofware is on the way from Adobe, Autodesk, Avid, Dassault Systems, SolidWorks and Microsoft. According to The Verge , Dell says it chose the lower screen resolution to reduce demands on the graphics subsystem of connected PCs.
Dell says the Canvas will start shipping on March 30, and that pricing will start at $1,800. The company didn’t say if the digitizer pen or the Totem rotary controller were included in that price. For comparison, the higher resolution Surface Studio all-in-one PC starts at $3,000. That $1,200 is a sizable difference that could buy a separate PC to drive the Canvas on its own, but the Surface Studio’s high-resolution screen is among the top of its class. Buyers will need to carefully consider their options.

© Source: http://techreport.com/news/31242/dell-canvas-draws-a-bead-on-the-surface-studio
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Turns out the tease was true : Microsoft Cortana is indeed coming to Nissan cars, the auto maker revealed at CES 2017 today.
But that’s just the surface. Nissan is actually the first car company to partner with Microsoft on its new Connected Vehicle Platform, a suite of services built on Azure that will help those in the industry « create custom connected driving experiences.  »
Microsoft made clear it doesn’t have plans to build a connected car of its own, and this isn’t an in-car operating system, like Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
Instead, Microsoft’s Connected Vehicle Platform is akin to a service for others to utilize. It will stay agile, adapting to work on five key areas: predictive maintenance, improved in-car productivity, advanced navigation, customer insights and help building autonomous driving capabilities.
The platform will bring Microsoft tools and services, including Cortana, Skype for Business and Office 365, to cars. As an example of its capabilities, if you ask Cortana to set up a meeting while you’re using your phone at home, the next time you get in the car, Cortana will remind you about the meeting and start the navigation to it.
As for Nissan, Microsoft said its services are destined for the car maker’s next-gen connected vehicles, providing information on everything from navigation to predictive maintenance.
Nissan’s news comes after BMW already announced it will integrate Cortana into its vehicles, at some point. Volvo’s 90 Series will also feature Skype for Business, Microsoft noted.
The Connected Vehicle Platform will launch in a public preview later this year, Microsoft said. While some may be disappointed we’re not in for a Windows Car, Microsoft is clearly serious about helping others delivers connected cars.

© Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/allnews/~3/td4LAFSiXnY/microsofts-connected-vehicle-platform-is-about-much-more-than-cortana-in-nissans
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Ghosn also stressed Nissan’s dedication to using the Leaf for energy distribution. He talked about electric vehicles that can supply power to homes, buildings or even the grid itself. When Nissan’s new European HQ opens, it will be partly powered by vehicle-to-building and vehicle-to-grid tech.
Nissan plans to launch a system it calls Seamless Autonomous Mobility. It’s a workaround solution for what to do when the first generation of true autonomous cars encounter situations they may not be able to handle.
Its autonomous cars would be linked to a command center. If the car encounters a problem — say, a roadblock where police are using hand signals to reroute cars over double yellow lines — the car pulls over and signals to the command center that it needs help.
An actual human (called a mobility manager) in that center will look at vehicle images and sensor data to determine how to handle it, and the car will be under the manager’s control until the manager leaves it to its own devices, pun intended.
As these calls continue to come in, the SAM system learns how the managers react to certain situations, and eventually, a SAM car would be able to broadcast those solutions to other cars, eventually creating an autonomous path through or around a given situation.
SAM is impressive, but it’s still way ahead of where Nissan’s autonomous development currently is.
Nissan plans to team up with Japanese internet business DeNA to test driverless commercial vehicles through the remainder of the decade. By 2020, it hopes to expand that testing to incorporate driverless technology in Tokyo-area mobility services.
The Renault-Nissan Alliance will provide the vehicular know-how, while DeNA will be in charge of user experience.
The alliance is taking a four-step approach to introducing autonomy. The first stage is ProPilot, which keeps the car in its lane on the highway. Step 2 uses multiple highway lanes, Step 3 brings autonomy into urban environments and the final stage is, of course, true driverless vehicles.
Here’s another ProPilot picture. I’m really milking these things for all they’re worth.
Nissan will continue to develop its partnership with Microsoft with the goal of launching new connected services and applications.
It will use Microsoft’s Azure to offer over-the-air updates, predictive maintenance and advanced vehicle navigation. It will also make use of Cortana to create a more intuitive voice-recognition experience, as well as adding personalized driver settings in owned and shared vehicles alike.
Sounds like a lot, right? It definitely is. But Nissan’s plan makes it clear that the company intends to go whole-hog into autonomous vehicle development. It’ll take time, but having it correct the first time beats being the first to do it.
Finally, a picture that’s relevant!

© Source: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/here-are-the-most-important-parts-of-nissans-ces-2017-keynote/
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.