Marthe Stegehuis

5/5 (2)

While the first prototypes of self-driving cars are taking the roads, Amsterdam will get the first autonomous boats on its canals next year. “Roboats” will completely change the city’s infrastructure.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), Delft University of Technology (TUD), and Wageningen University and Research (WUR) announced the first major research project on autonomous vessels in metropolitan areas. The project will take five years and has a grand budget of 25 million euros.

Roboats is the first large-scale research on exploring and testing the rich set of possibilities for autonomous systems on water. The scope of the project is not just autonomous boats for the transport of goods and people. The researchers are also looking into dynamic and temporary floating infrastructure like on-demand bridges and stages that allow assembly and disassembly in just a couple of hours.

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“Roboat offers enormous possibilities,” says Professor Arjan van Timmeren, AMS Institute’s Scientific Director, “as we’ll also be exploring environmental sensing. We could for instance do further research on underwater robots that can detect diseases at an early stage or use Roboats to rid the canals from floating waste and find a more efficient way to handle the 12,000 bicycles that end up in the city’s canals each year.” These underwater Roboats will also gather data on environmental aspects like water quality, air quality, and noise to keep track of these features of an urban area over time.

This means Roboats are not just a form of transport. They are platforms that should be able to join together to form temporary bridges or extend the shore at times of peak demand. Think of the opportunities during rush hour or during a festival. I can tell from my own experience that more efficient transportation and infrastructure like mentioned above are very much needed during those times.

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So, why do we need Roboats? The project aims to improve transportation, mobility and water quality in metropolitan areas. With 60% of the world population living around coasts, riverbanks and deltas, researchers expect the Roboat project to become an example for urban areas around the world. In addition, it could be a source of international entrepreneurial initiatives and start-ups researching autonomy in the marine world. Finally, Roboats can give insights for assessment and predictions on ecological quality.

The first Roboat prototypes are expected to be floating on the canals of Amsterdam in 2017. What do you think about this new research? Do you think it will be valuable for metropolitan areas all around the world, and in the future?

Sources:

http://www.ams-institute.org/roboat/

http://fortune.com/2016/09/19/amsterdam-roboat-autonomous/

http://www.itnews.com/article/3121748/emerging-technology/autonomous-boats-yes-boats-to-hit-the-water-in-2017.html

5/5 (5)

Google just launched its new smart messenger app: Allo. The features Google Assistant and Smart Reply should persuade people to switch from market leaders like WhatsApp. Let’s review, should you?

Even though the app is not yet widely available in the Netherlands, Allo has already made quite some fuzz in other countries. The app – like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger – sends messages over the Internet. It therefore seems like another effort by Google to make an impact in the messenger market, after the failure of Google Hangouts.

Let’s take a look at some of the main features.

When Caps Lock is not doing it for you, Allo enables you to manually adjust the text size by sliding up the
send button. In addition, you can also “whisper” by sliding the button down and making the message smaller.
New stickers are added to Allo, designed by independent artists and studios from all over the world.
You can edited photos by instantly doodling on them or adding text. You can also create memes of you and your friends.
You can enable Incognito mode with end-to-end encryption when you want to. In addition, you can choose to let chats expire after a certain time or receive private notifications to make your messaging more discreet.

google 1.1

These features are not groundbreaking, right? That’s why Google put the focus on two standout features: the Google Assistant and Smart Reply.

Smart Reply uses machine-learning to suggest responses based on your personality. Yes, your personality. Basically, this entails the app to record whether you use “haha”, “lol” or a smiley andcreates a suggestion panel to save you time the next time your friend sends you a lame joke.
The Google Assistant is the most important feature, making use of artificial intelligence and machine-learning. This is an integrated virtual assistant in the shape of a chat bot that uses the Google database to answer any question you pose. It pretty much combines Google Now and Siri into one product. For example, you can ask for soccer scores, but also more controversial options are available. Let’s say you are standing in front of a famous sculpture and want to know the creator of it: by asking “who designed this?” Google Assistant will use location data and image recognition to answer you within seconds. Of course it is also possible to play games with the virtual assistant.

assistant

Sounds pretty cool, right? Critics think otherwise. The main issue for most of them is the fact that the end-to-end encryption – that is now widely used in messaging apps – is turned off by default in Allo. Why pretend to care about the user’s privacy when it is not enabled by default? Add the fact that most users do not change the default settings of an app to that, and Google has just found another way to sneakily gather a lot of information about you. The problem is that for these standout features to actually work for you, Allo needs to be able to collect information about you based on your conversations. It thus seems to be a trade-off between privacy and usefulness.

The features also stirred up some dust individually. Smart reply has been completely slaughtered with regard to the fact that it makes messaging even more impersonal than it already was. Basically, you let a robot suggest a response to the digital message sent by one of your friends because you are too lazy to come up with a good comment yourself. How would you feel if you know your friend sent you an automatic reply?

Google Assistant enjoys a moderately positive reception. The way the feature collects information from all the deep web-based knowledge of Google makes it highly useful, especially combined with a user’s personal smartphone behavior. It is important to note that Google Assistant is conversational: it is an ongoing two-way dialogue between the assistant answering questions posed by the user. This sets it apart from voice control assistants like Siri. Simply by typing “@google” you can ask away and the information found by the Google assistant is given in the (group-)chat. However, you can also send a voice recording to use its help. The question most posed by critics is whether Google Assistant can live up to the hype, something predecessors like Siri failed at. The problem is that we are still far from developing software that can use language the way a human does. Responses often remain off-topic, turning it into an “annoying intern” as the critic for the New York Times called it.

Despite the fact that I have not tried the app yet myself, doing research on it convinced me of one thing: Google Allo is not worth the download – yet. Personally, I do not want Google to be able to also read all my messages, they already know enough. Perhaps if Google can improve the features over time by learning from feedback, and if Allo can be used on more devices than just a smartphone, I would give it a try. For now, however, I will keep using my pal WhatsApp.

What messaging app are you using currently? Would you switch to Google Allo after reading this? And what do you think about its features and the critique on it, do you agree?

Sources:

https://allo.google.com/

http://fortune.com/2016/05/19/google-allo-privacy/

http://www.cnet.com/products/google-allo/review/

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3071647/google-io/google-assistant-is-like-a-conversational-google-now-on-steroids.html

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/137722-what-is-google-assistant-how-does-it-work-and-when-can-you-use-it

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-allo-should-be-deleted-and-never-used-says-edward-snowden-a7320861.html

http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/21/12996170/google-allo-review-assistant-messaging-chat-app