Category: Interfaces
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Samsung confirmed this week that they have rolled out an over-the-network software update to Family Hub refrigerators in the US that will enable advertising on the fridge’s video display. The ads, which will be introduced as cover screens, which are essentially screen saver images that the fridge displays when the screen is idle. Samsung’s ad…
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Imagine scanning a tuna steak in your fridge and suddenly a tiny laser pulse beams an expiration date or, surprise, tells you it’s not really wild-caught. That’s no longer a sci‑fi: new research from a group of academic researchers from the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece published…
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After seeing Mark Ronson’s “Watch the Sound” series on music, my 10-year-old son is now very into drum machines and beats. And while he would love a vintage Roland TR 808 to kick off his burgeoning music career, I think instead I’ll get him a box of Reese’s Puffs cereal. Not that I think a…
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It’s easy to joke about digital assistants like Alexa not understanding us. But that’s because most of us take for granted that the words we speak are easily understood. For many people with non-standard speech patterns, this isn’t the case. People with cerebral palsy, stroke victims or people with lifelong speech impairments may speak in…
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Robotic pizza vending startup Piestro announced today that it has partnered with PopID to integrate pay-with-your face technology into Piestro’s machines. The integration of PopID’s technology will provide Piestro customers a new contactless ordering and payment system. In addition to paying with traditional credit/debit cards, users can create a PopID account to enable payment via…
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Kea, which makes an AI-powered virtual phone assistant for restaurants, has raised a $10 million Series A round of funding. TechCrunch was first to report on the round, which was led by Marbruck, with Streamlined Ventures, Xfund, Heartland Ventures, DEEPCORE, Barrel Ventures and AVG Funds, as well as other angel investors participating. This brings the…
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One big area where virtual assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant fall short of real human assistants is their inability to contextualize and anticipate what you’ll want next. Currently, requests made to virtual assistants are often siloed, and go something like this: “Alexa, how long should I steep tea?” Alexa answers, with something like…
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You have to, errrr, hand it to Amazon. The e-commerce giant today announced Amazon One, a new contactless payment method that relies on scanning your palm as you enter its store. Amazon One is now an entry option at two of Amazon’s Go stores in Seattle (the 7th & Blanchard and South Lake Union stores,…
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Apple’s iOS 14 drops today, which means a bunch of new features are coming to your iPhone. Among the batch of goodies to be found in the update is the release of App Clips, which could help accelerate the adoption of mobile contactless payments across the food retail and restaurant space. We covered App Clips…
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There’s no doubt that voice control interfaces like Alexa and Google have had a huge impact on the way we search for recipes, access our appliances and add things to our grocery lists. But what if that voice assistant had a contextual understanding of where you where looking when you are cooking the evening meal?…
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Among the countless ways COVID is altering the meal journey is the humble menu. Gone are the germy, reusable laminated menus of the past, and while single-use paper menus are a cheap stopgap, the whole experience will move to our mobile phones. There’s a problem with ordering through mobile menus, though: they aren’t very enticing.…
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As restaurants reopen and (some) employees go back to the office, ensuring sanitary, socially distanced public spaces is a major topic of discussion, and contactless is fast becoming a requirement for everything from restaurant menus to grocery deliveries to lunch. Your office water cooler can join that list now, too. Today, Bevi, a tech company…
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