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Japan planning to invest billions in service robots

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Japan Robot Week 2016 was hailed “a great success” by the organisers, as the event finished. 

In 2015, the Japanese government announced “Japan’s Robot Strategy”, designating the subsequent five years as a term for dedicated focus on robotics innovation.

Leading up to 2020, the government pledged to invest approximately $1 billion in robotics-related projects, aiming to expand the service robot market to $14 billion – about 20 times today’s market value.  [Read more…] about Japan planning to invest billions in service robots

Bank of America hires chatty virtual robot

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By David Henry, Reuters

Bank of America plans to provide customers with a chatty “virtual assistant” named Erica that will use artificial intelligence to make suggestions over mobile phones for improving their financial affairs.

Michelle Moore, head of digital banking for Bank of America, said in an interview on Monday that Erica will be smarter than a robot because she will bring up topics on her own, using predictive analytics as opposed to only answering questions customers ask.

For example, Erica may recommend taking steps to lift a sagging credit rating she noticed. Or, she may propose a customer make higher monthly payments on an outstanding credit card balance to reduce interest expenses.  [Read more…] about Bank of America hires chatty virtual robot

Toyota launches connected car platform and partners with Getaround to compete with Uber

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Toyota follows up its Microsoft deal with partnership with Getaround in bid to challenge Uber

Toyota says it will launch a Mobility Services Platform (MSPF) to collaborate with various service providers, as well as telematics insurance.

Based on the proliferation and popularity of mobility services, like car-sharing, the MSPF will have various functions to support mobility services, and leverage the Toyota Smart Center (TSC), the Toyota Big Data Center, and financial services.

Shigeki Tomoyama, president of Toyota Connected, says: “As a mobility service platform provider, by collaborating with various companies and services, we would like to help create a new mobility society in order to offer safer and more convenient mobility to our customers.”  [Read more…] about Toyota launches connected car platform and partners with Getaround to compete with Uber

The Toyota Corolla at 50: The best-selling car of all time

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The Toyota Corolla is by far the best-selling model of car ever made, with close to 50 million units sold since its launch in 1966. 

The company commemorated the 50th anniversary last month of “the car for everyone” by producing a video and other content looking back on its success in putting Toyota on the global automaking map.

One notable story told of how one owner has been driving his first-generation Corolla since he bought it in 1969 at the age of 24.  [Read more…] about The Toyota Corolla at 50: The best-selling car of all time

Accenture makes business life easier with automation

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accenture

Interview with Manish Sharma, senior managing director and group operating officer, Accenture Operations. This article is republished from the original source, em360tech.com

If business was easy, everyone would be doing it. Running a business is a complex and sometimes difficult thing to do.

The more experience one has, the more they can make it look easy. But no matter how experienced you are, and how much you can “routinise” your workload by yourself, a robot and software could probably do those things better.

That might sound disheartening for some, but for others, it provides an opportunity to become more productive, and in ways that are more creative and rewarding.

Here, we speak to Manish Sharma, senior managing director and group operating officer, Accenture Operations, about how the company itself uses automation to streamline its processes. 
[Read more…] about Accenture makes business life easier with automation

The Rubik’s Cube phenomenon: One for the all-time pop charts

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lockTo date, more than 400 million Rubik’s Cubes have been sold around the world. As such, the puzzle game is one of the biggest-selling products in history.

Not bad for a toy which its inventor, Hungarian architect Ernő Rubik, says he didn’t even plan to make.

He was working as a professor of architecture at the Budapest College of Applied Architecture at the time, in 1974, and built the cube with the intention of “searching to find a good task for my students”.  [Read more…] about The Rubik’s Cube phenomenon: One for the all-time pop charts

Infineon chip solves Rubik’s Cube in about one half of one second

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rubik infineon
Picture from Caschy’s Blog

Lightning fast machine sorts out the squares in 637 thousandths of a second

The Rubik’s Cube is one of the world’s most famous puzzles, and one of the best-selling products in history. 

Tens of millions – possibly hundreds of millions – of people have tried to manipulate the cubic puzzle to manoeuvre the colours so they match on all six sides. And millions have succeeded.

But it would impossible for any human to do what a machine did earlier today at the electronica trade fair, where a machine called “Sub1 Reloaded” pulled off the feat with the help of microchips from Infineon in less than a second – 637 thousandths of a second to be exact.  [Read more…] about Infineon chip solves Rubik’s Cube in about one half of one second

AI knew Trump would win

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Artificial intelligence systems can predict election results better than traditional pollsters, according to a report on em360tech.com. 

Artificial intelligence systems predicted a win for Donald Trump, of the Republican Party, over Hillary Clinton, of the Democrats, in the US presidential elections held yesterday.

Most traditional opinion pollsters rely on directly asking people about their voting intentions and behaviour.  [Read more…] about AI knew Trump would win

US will regain top spot from China in manufacturing by 2020, says report

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The United States will regain its lead as the world’s most competitive manufacturing nation by the year 2020, according to a report by economic analyst Deloitte. 

Deloitte made its forecast after surveying the opinions of manufacturing industry executives for its 2016 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index.

Deloitte says “executives expect the US to assume the top position before the end of the decade”.  [Read more…] about US will regain top spot from China in manufacturing by 2020, says report

Trust Automation adds ‘revolutionary capture technology’ to robotic aircraft

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zipline-robotic-aircraft

Trust Automation says it has provided critical engineering support in the development of the recovery system for Zipline International’s medical delivery drones.

Trust Automation is a provider of standard and custom motors and controls as well as support system solutions.

Trust Automation says it was instrumental in taking a concept provided by Zipline from drawing board design to operational reality. [Read more…] about Trust Automation adds ‘revolutionary capture technology’ to robotic aircraft