Monthly Archives: May 2017

by Reyna Harvey, Eyewitness News

A group of local seniors learn about new technologies to better communicate with their friends and family. (KBAK/KBFX/Reyna Harvey)

Seniors can have a pretty big learning curve when it comes to using technology.

The residents at Brookdale Senior Living are shortening the gap on that curve with the swipe of an iPad screen.

The workshop is taught by Technical instructor Brenda Malin.

Residents are shown how to use everything from iPads, social media and mobile devices .

They also meet in small groups and take monthly trips to the Apple Store to have their tech questions answered by experts.

The goal of the workshop is to help improve their quality of life.

The seniors plan to use their new found tech skills to help one another.

"I can depend on the other residents, if they know the answer to be able to lean over and show the person besides them how to do it," says Malin.

If you would like more information about the program you can visit brookdale.com.

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Local seniors take on new technology - Bakersfield Now

Jennifer Jolly, Special for USA Today Published 11:54 a.m. ET May 7, 2017 | Updated 11 hours ago

Columnist Jennifer Jolly shows you the coolest tech for Mother's Day. Jennifer Jolly, Special for USA Today

From unicorn roses to selfie drones, here are unusual gadget gifts for mom.(Photo: James Nickerson for USA TODAY)

Hey! Mothers Dayis right around the corner (May 14th). From Unicorn roses to selfie drones, here are all the gadget gifts no one else would ever think of except a mom who covers tech for a living.

Moms like me love to capture every moment of our familys lives. But were never in the photos because were always taking them! Heres a hands-free hack to take snapshots and selfies to new heights: the Rova Selfie Drone ($299.00). Just launch this frisbee-sized flyer into the air and its built-in obstacle avoidance technology keeps it from crashing down on the kitchen table while it catches all the best angles. She can even share the photos straight to social media right from the app, because if it didnt happen on Instagram, it didnt really happen, right?

LifePrint is an augmented reality photo printer that creates great still shots.(Photo: LifePrint)

Moms a family photo nut but I bet shes never printed a video before. LifePrint ($129.95) is an augmented reality photo printer that creates great still shots, but when viewed through the LifePrint app, the images come alive into animated videos like magic. It prints videos from Facebook, Instagram, Apple Live Photos, and more.

Rainbow roses from F-T-D.(Photo: Jennifer Jolly special for USA Today)

Wait, flowers? Arent flowers pretty standard for Mothers Day? Not the rainbow roses from FTD making headlines as the newest must-have in the whole unicorn craze. How do you get the petals to be so different? Magic. Duh.

ProFlowers has a pretty enchanting take on fresh flowers this year too. They partnered with All Across Africa to offer handwoven basket vases ($29.99 and up), created by artists in Rwanda. No two are ever the same, and by giving one to mom youre also providing clothes, shoes, healthcare, school supplies, and all kinds of other support for the talented creators who made them.

Heres another great go-to for matching your one-of-a-kind mom with a one-of-a-kind gift from some of the worlds most talented artists like her own child! Grab a piece of your own childhood art, pick out a gorgeous frame and setting, and give her the most personalized, meaningful piece of wall art shes ever seen. Or use your own likeness for a stunning custom print ($29.99 and up at Minted.com).

For the gadget-loving mom who covets her smartphone (guilty!), check out these beautifully bold new Symmetry cases from Otterbox ($39.95). Theyre built to protect and impress, just like mom, and theyre designed by some of the top fashionistas on the planet, so mom can keep her digital lifeline safe and secure and sport some sexy style at the same time.

Mom might have rocked a fanny pack in the glory days of the 1990s, but today, Mobovidas Bristol Belt Bags ($85.00 and up) are the hip, fashionable, modern version of on-the-go carry-alls. Its made of luxurious leather and has pockets for all the things mom totes along, like her keys, phone, and even a built-in phone charger in case she runs out of juice but still needs to check in.

Okay, so your guitar or drums lessons mom paid for didnt amount to much of a music career, but you can still serenade her with a personalized tune all her own with Songfinch ($200). You fill out a Mad Lib-style questionnaire to give the artists some inspiration, and Songfinchs professional songwriters will craft the ballad just for her. You can even pick the genre, and after its made, mom can download, share, and show it off to whoever she wants, scoring you big points along the way.

For moms with musical aspirations of their own, the One light keyboard is the fast-track to success.(Photo: Smartpiano)

For moms with musical aspirations of their own, the One light keyboard ($269.99) is the fast-track to success. This app-enabled instrument guides her through lessons in no time, and before you know it shell be keying her way through some seriously impressive tunes. The keys light up to teach each skill in the most intuitive way possible, and it includes built-in speakers and works with both iOS and Android phones.

It goes without saying, but everyone once in awhile mom needs to unwind with a nice glass of wine, so what better way to help her enjoy her me time than with monthly deliveries of the best wine the world has to offer? Wincs monthly wine boxes (starting at $13 per bottle) are hand-picked by top wine tasters and are sourced from as close as California or as far away as France, South Africa, and even New Zealand.

Nimb , a stylish smart ring that instantly notifies you, and even emergency responders, if shes ever in trouble.(Photo: Nimb Inc.)

Give mom a gift that will let her know that she really does mean the world to you with Nimb ($129), a stylish smart ring that instantly notifies you, and even emergency responders, if shes ever in trouble. The ring works hand-and-hand with an app to send out instant alerts if an emergency strikes, and shows you exactly where she is. Its a little peace of mind in a crazy world, and mom will definitely appreciate that.

Jennifer Jollyis an Emmy Award-winning consumer tech contributor and host of USA TODAY's digital video show TECH NOW. E-mail her at jj@techish.com. Follow her on Twitter@JenniferJolly.

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Mother's Day: The best gifts for the mom who loves technology - USA TODAY

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE

When the Air Forces most advanced F-22 stealth fighters lost their cockpit displays crossing the international dateline over the Pacific, the phone of C. Douglas Ebersole began to ring.

Ebersole was an aerospace engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which at the time in February 2007 was in the middle of a major snowstorm.

I got the call at home and they said, Hey, youve got to got to get into the office right away, he remembered.

Ebersole, 58, of Beavercreek, was the point man at the Air Force Research Laboratory, ending his 35-year career late last month, the last two years as the civilian executive director of the agency. His successor hasnt been announced.

Brig. Gen. William T. Cooley became AFRLs military commander last Tuesday.

Ebersole has had a front row seat watching technology AFRL has worked on show up on the front lines.

In January 1991, when F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack jets bombed Baghdad at night and escaped unscathed in a barrage of anti-aircraft fire, Ebersole watched the campaign unfold on television. He had more than a passing interest in the once secret jet: He was the lead flight technology engineer on the program at AFRL.

Those kinds of groundbreaking projects are what AFRL has focused on in its labs and directorates at Wright-Patterson and in Florida, New Mexico, New York and Virginia, according to scientists.

He was on the hook a decade ago to find out what was wrong with the F-22 and fix it. Working with engineers and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, they found a fix within a week and the planes continued to Japan, he said.

Sometimes, you learn from your mistakes, right? he said

The Wayne High School alumnus has Purdue University and University of Dayton engineering degrees, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology masters of business administration degree and was a senior executive fellow at Harvard University.

From his former vantage point as the highest-ranking civilian leader and assistant to the AFRL commander, he helped oversee a $4.9 billion budget and 6,300 scientists and engineers.

More than half the AFRL budget is derived from customers such as contractors and government agencies to fund lab research.

C. Douglas Ebersole was recently named the Air Force Research Lab executive director. Staff Writer

Outside funding rose to $2.7 billion last year, compared to about $2 billion in 2014, he said. The demand is particularly strong at the Information Directorate at Rome, N.Y., he said.

Hopefully, the trend will continue, Ebersole said. That brings a lot of work into AFRL and I think it demonstrates the value that maybe these external customers see, which might be tied to telling our story a little bit better.

In recent years, stop gap funding measures in the absence of a fiscal year budget for months have caused turbulence in steering the future of the agency, he noted.

Theres some areas we want to place some big bets and its just hard to do that if you dont have that solid five-year budget plan coming out of Capitol Hill, he said. Thats probably the biggest part is just not knowing the future.

Wright-Patterson is headquarters to AFRL and has four of nine directorates: Aerospace Systems, Materials and Manufacturing, Sensors, the 711th Human Performance Wing.

AFRL has placed big bets on future hypersonic and directed-energy research and autonomous systems, resulting in remotely piloted drones to fly in tandem with manned aircraft.

Among its marque programs, the agency has tested hypersonic vehicles for a future high-speed strike weapon and has focused on creating a laser weapon that can fit on a fighter jet by the next decade.

AFRL has urged researchers to pursue more patents. The push was started after a high-level Air Force leader thought AFRL wasnt producing as many patents compared to their counterparts in Army and Navy research labs, according to Ebersole.

Thats something I was the champion for here in AFRL, and weve made progress there, and weve really tried to decompose what is the problem, he said.

Since then, AFRL recognized researchers with a wall of fame of sorts inside the agency, taking note of patented research work.

The first thing that became evident was we werent celebrating it, he said.

The agency hired tech scouts to comb the laboratories and work with researchers to discover what work coming out of the lab might lead to patents and invention disclosures, the first step to a years-long process to obtain a patent.

Sometimes a researcher doesnt see novel, he said. He or she doesnt really realize the work that theyre doing is patent-able.

Along with tech scouts, the agency hired paralegals to work on the paperwork for invention disclosures and patents.

One thing about researchers (is) they may not want to write a patent, write an invention disclosure, but they love talking about their work, he said. And thats been the game changer is to just do the work a Ph.D. white coat researcher doesnt want to do because he or she just wants to do his work.

In fiscal year 2015, the agency recorded 108 invention disclosures, and 101 the following year, figures show. So far this fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, the agency has reported 84.

Last fiscal year, AFRL had 49 patents, the most recent numbers available.

The science and technology agency also has pushed taking technology developed in the lab and putting it on the commercial market to lower costs and build the defense industrial base.

AFRL has an entrepreneurship program for scientists and engineers who may leave the agency and set up small businesses for work started in the laboratory.

During Ebersoles tenure, AFRL also opened a satellite office in downtown Dayton this spring to put researchers outside the fence into collaboration with technical experts. This month, nearly 40 academic and industry researchers around the world will explore challenges in autonomy with AFRL scientists inside the Dayton office for three months.

The next project will explore augmented reality, joining virtual reality with a real-world environment.

Top leaders interest in AFRL

The agencys research has interest among the highest-ranking Air Forces leaders. In February, AFRL representatives met with Gen. David L. Goldfein, the four-star commander of the military branch, and Acting Secretary of the Air Force Lisa S. Disbrow.

AFRL leaders have met with the top two Air Force leaders every six months or so since the first session in August 2014.

It really has been able to communicate the value of AFRL to the most senior leadership in the Air Force, Ebersole said. The fact that we have that communication loop with them, it does allow us to get re-vectored. It allows us to get aligned with the warfighter.

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AFRL leader had front row seat to world's best technology - Dayton Daily News

If machines are really getting smarter and threatening to replace human workers en masse, Canadians dont seem overly alarmed just yet.

Thats the upshot of a poll released Saturday by Abacus Data. The Ottawa polling firm found 89 per cent of Canadians agreed technological change has been good for the world, while 76 per cent agreed technological change has been good for my own economic well-being. While wealthier respondents were more likely to see technology change as good for their prosperity, two-thirds of respondents labelled working/lower class agreed.

The broad consensus that technological change has been good for the world crosses party lines, generations, and self-defined class status, Abacus said in a release. Majorities in every case are of the view that the impact has been positive for them personally. Only 18 per cent of adults were fearful about the impact of technological advances, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet, as well as globalization and immigration.

Those results came despite the fact 62 per cent of those polled agreed whether we like it or not, technology will continue to disrupt the economy and were evenly split on whether AI and automation helped or hurt Canadas future economic prospects. Respondents were relatively more negative on the potentially harmful impacts of technology on the Canadian economy than from immigration or globalization.

Recent breakthroughs in AI machine learning many pioneered by Canadian researchers have paved the way for technology to radically change how work is done and by whom, or by what. Self-teaching algorithms and robots are poised to perform tasks that machines have been unable to do on their own such as operating cars, detecting fraud, transcribing human speech, and sorting, selecting and packing goods. That has raised the spectre that millions of workers could be displaced by machines in years to come.

Technology proponents argue there will still be plenty of work for humans, but how they do their jobs and what they are paid could be transformed. The first effect of machine intelligence will be to lower the cost of goods and services that rely on prediction in a range of sectors, University of Toronto academics Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb wrote in a Harvard Business Review article titled The Simple Economics of Machine Intelligence, published last November. As a result, we will start using prediction to perform tasks where we previously didnt [while] the value of other things that complement prediction will rise.

The question of technology is becoming more complex or nuanced, said Abacus chairman Bruce Anderson. On the whole, Canadians see big upsides to the technological revolution that has transformed world economies. However, there is already a fair bit of anxiety about the dislocation that may occur as a result of artificial intelligence and automation.

The findings mirror the results of a global survey by British research firm Vanson Bourne last year, commissioned by Dell Technologies, that suggested Canadian companies hadnt been as affected by digital disruption, nor had they transformed as much to compete in the digital economy as their peers elsewhere. Another poll, by the Angus Reid Institute last year, found 63 per cent of Canadians were seriously concerned new technology would likely eliminate more jobs than would be created.

Abacus surveyed 1,500 randomly selected Canadian adults online from April 21-24. The poll, weighted according to census data, is considered to have a margin of error of plus-minus 2.6 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Follow Sean Silcoff on Twitter: @SeanSilcoff

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Canadians unconcerned about technology's impact on the economy: poll - The Globe and Mail

Professor Brian Cox, one of the curators of the new Tomorrows World. Photograph: Leili Farzaneh/BBC

A younger member of my family has been known to leave the room, wailing: Theyre talking about sweets again! when those of a certain age rhapsodise about the confectionery of yore; Spangles, Sherbet Fountains and Kola Kubes do not float his boat. Thus we are made to realise how tiresome group nostalgia is to youth, which immediately sparks a slew of memories of how irksome it was every time ones parents insisted that David Sylvian was all well and good, but they preferred songs where you could hear the lyrics.

So the first rule of writing about the BBCs (sort of) revival of Tomorrows World, the future technology programme that ran for nearly 40 years, is to avoid banging on about how back then we were all told wed be swallowing pills instead of roast dinners and be strapped into personal transporters. (The latter became so ingrained in the collective culture that there is a band called We Were Promised Jetpacks, formed in 2003, the year Tomorrows World last aired).

Tomorrows World 2.0 does not mark the return of Maggie Philbin, Judith Hann or Kieran Prendeville to our screens, alas; indeed, it is nothing so unsophisticated as a single TV programme, but an entire science strand (we didnt have strands in the olden days, kids; we had about three telly programmes a day, tinned peas, fresh air and skittles). The BBCs intention, in the words of one of the seasons curators, Professor Brian Cox, is to represent the institutions of Britain coming together to inspire current and future generations, to convince them to embrace the opportunities that science brings, to foster a spirit of curiosity and tolerance and to embrace the unknown not in fear but in wonder.

Nobody could argue with that and we must all hope that PBC follows through on his hint, earlier last week, that he might consider a career in politics; things, after all, can only get better.

But capturing the spirit that fuelled the original and the enthusiasm that greeted it might prove more complicated. Its not that the public isnt interested in scientific and technological innovation or blind to the benefits that it can bring; far from it. We pride ourselves, now, on being early adopters, captains of multiple screens, health and fitness self-quantifiers, remote heating controllers, online shoppers, streamers, downloaders. We eagerly monitor developments heralding the active involvement of robots in our everyday lives, of driverless cars whizzing us along motorways, of day trips to space and though many are wary of saying it, so primal a fear does it evoke increased dominion over death itself.

The landscape is radically altered from the 1960s and from Harold Wilsons celebrated speech at the Labour party conference in 1963, in which he exhorted his audience to embrace the white heat of technological revolution and use it to adapt and to further their Socialist principles. Labours new leader it had been only nine months since he had taken over from Hugh Gaitskell, his mission to restore the party to government after over a decade in opposition sought to align scientific progress with Labour values and to contrast it with the more resistant attitudes of the entrenched elites.

As Matthew Francis pointed out in a piece marking the 50th anniversary of the speech, Wilsons declaration of intent took place against the backdrop of a public argument between scientist CP Snow, who had accused the ruling classes of being natural Luddites and literary critic FR Leavis; in essence, it was science versus culture, a destructive polarisation whose effects can still be felt.

That was 1963; Tomorrows World launched two years later. Among the innovations that it showcased, often many years before their widespread introduction, were mobile phones, touchscreens, breathalysers, chip and pin. In the more modestly populated TV schedules of its heyday, it became something close to destination viewing.

Fast forward to the present day, and to the jewel in the new Tomorrows World crown Expedition New Earth, in which Professor Stephen Hawking will argue, as has been widely reported, that the human race needs to make alternative living arrangements in the next 100 years, as climate change, overpopulation and the threat of asteroid strikes make our home increasingly precarious.

This is decidedly postlapsarian talk; factor in more frequent mentions of nuclear war and it becomes terrifying, just as we were terrified by the apocalyptic TV drama Threads in 1984. But Tomorrows World was not Threads; it was more hopeful, more committed to believing that our ingenuity and endeavour would deliver progress to the benefit of all.

Vast advances have occurred; ask the parents of a premature baby, anyone waiting for breakthroughs in stem cell therapy or enhanced crop production, or those who communicate with faraway loved ones via Skype. But they have been accompanied by other, more ambiguous changes, chief among them the revolution in communications that has brought us, alongside an ability to break down barriers of space and time, a hyper-accelerated and atomised culture.

It is, surely, more rather than less likely that the internet will discover a cure for cancer. But although future discoveries and innovations are just as probable, they are also far less predictable. The fact that every step towards them is often more likely to be open to mass scrutiny has consequences. Take recent reports of the relatively imminent arrival of artificial wombs, of crucial importance in the care of aforementioned premature babies: wondering at this marvel is swiftly displaced by the battle for territory between feminists (and other sane people) and mens rights activists, who declare the obsolescence of women.

Its possible and certainly desirable that Brian Cox et al will prove a counterblast to such nonsense; that he chose to include the word tolerance alongside curiosity is itself telling. Science isnt something to be tolerated it is simply something that is. But we will need to take ourselves in hand, too, to acknowledge that much technology is no sooner birthed than put into the service of rampant consumerism.

A current TV advert shows a chap going home on the bus. He holds a large potato, his sustenance for the evening, presumably to be cooked and gussied up with a tin of tuna or beans or some grated cheese. Simple, nutritious, actually quite delicious. The ad, though, urges him to toss his spud for his hearts desire: pad thai, on his doorstep with just a click and a credit card. Im not sure technology as lubrication of instant gratification chimes with the spirit of Tomorrows World. Love, and use, the new technology, but dont improve your tea, improve yourself.

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Remember when technology felt fun and life-changing? - The Guardian

Im standing in the admissions line at a museum in New York when I overhear a surprising claim: Its like going to the dentist, a man declares. Id rather go the dentist than go to a museum.

We can go somewhere else if you want, his partner offers.

No, its fine. He pauses. I strongly believe that people arent interested in museums. They just go because its a must.

This man isnt alone in his skepticism. Recent reports from the National Endowment for the Arts recorded an eight percent drop in the number of US adults who visited art museums in the past two decades, as well as a particularly sharp decline in museum-going rates among millennials in their twenties and thirties. In response to the findings, Sunil Iyengar, director of research and analysis at the NEA, told Pacific Standard in 2015 that theres no tidy answer as to why this is happening, but added that theres a lot of competition for leisure activities.

Museums must find new ways to engage and excite visitors. The growing slew of digital entertainment options wrestling for our attention may be part of the problem for museums, but for many institutions, digital technology also offers a potential solution. Charged with the crucial task of preserving our past, museums must now navigate the future.

Catherine Devine, chief digital officer at the American Museum of Natural History, sees the task at hand as keeping the museum relevant for a number of different audiences, and she has spent the past five years working to really get [the museum] into the 21st century. That means rethinking the way visitors experience museums to better match the way they lead their daily lives, where tasks as varied as ordering food or finding a date can be accomplished with just a click or a swipe.

Visitors expect their digital experiences to follow them into the museum

A lot of peoples expectations are framed in the rest of their lives, and then when they come to the museum, [] they expect that experience to continue, Devine says.

One step in that direction has been the launch and ensuing redesign of the museums smartphone app, called Explorer. Originally developed in 2010, the museum officially relaunched the app last November, filled with reimagined content like behind-the-scenes trivia and virtual games. When I open Explorer inside the Hall of Ocean Lifewhere the museums famous 94-foot-long model of a blue whale presidesthe app promptly informs me that a blue whale weighs as much as five subway cars, and lets me listen to an underwater recording of whale songs.

The app uses a network of 800 beacons placed throughout the museum to pinpoint visitors locations and show content related to your immediate surroundings, as well as provide relevant logistical information, like directions. According to Scott Rohan, the museums senior publicist, Explorer has been downloaded more than a million times since July 2010.

In nearly two decades working at the American Museum of Natural History, Vivian Trakinski, director of the museums Science Bulletins, has witnessed the evolution of visitor experiences firsthand. Originally hired to produce short science documentaries, Trakinski now spends most of her time working on data visualizations in a variety of digital formats.

When I came here [in 1999], we were focused on video, she says. She still produces videos, but says that now, we are focusing on more immersive and interactive platforms [...] People want to be able to curate their own content. People want to be engaged in the creation of it.

Trakinskis team is currently working on a number of augmented reality prototypes that will allow visitors to more actively engage with the museums specimens and datasets, including an immersive AR experience of what it would be like to play golf on Mars, using data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiters Context Camera. Her team also took a CT scan of a Mako shark and created an AR experience in which visitors can look through a Google Tango tablet or a stereoscopic AR headset, see the scanned skeleton overlaid on top of the museums actual shark model, and make the shark swim or bite.

Its not a passive experience where were telling you something, says Trakinski. [Visitors] are actually creating the learning through the interaction with this real artifact of science.

As the Museum of Natural History tests out its AR prototypes, just a few miles uptown at the Met Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has collaborated with the Canadian Film Centres Media Lab, Senecas School of Creative Arts and Animation, and the Art Gallery of Ontario to showcase their experiment with virtual reality. This spring, the Met launched an exhibit Small Wonders: The VR Experience, inviting visitors to don a VR headset and explore the detailing on a 16th century Gothic prayer bead up close. Lisa Ellis, a conservator at the Art Gallery of Ontario, spearheaded the original micro-CT scanning of the miniature beads. She recalls that her team was blown away when they saw the intricacies of the beads designs and wanted to share them with a wider audience. The immersive experience provided by the HTC Vive headset was the perfect vehicle for this object.

Immersion and interaction are also key elements in the visitor experience at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. The museum reopened in late 2014 after a three-year renovation. (Check out The Verges 2015 interview with the museums former head of engineering here.) Technological upgrades included the introduction of an electronic Pen that allows visitors to draw on digital display tables and to download and save items throughout the museum to a personal web account linked to their Pen.

Caroline Baumann, the director of Cooper Hewitt, recalls that the museum confronted many skeptics when first floating the concept of the electronic stylus, with some critics assuming that no visitors would put down their smartphone for long enough to use the Pen. Today, she proudly notes that 97 percent of visitors actually take the Pen upon entering the gallery and that 21 million objects have been downloaded to visitors accounts using the gadget. Baumann hoped that the tool would be accessible to all and would cut across education, class, privilege, and she believes that the digital redesign of the museum has succeeded in drawing both museum connoisseurs and first-timers. Were seeing people that have never been to a museum, she says.

For many institutions, the digital revolution has required a complete rethinking of the museum model and a new digital mindset that filters through the entire operation.

I feel that digital is not something that sits to the side, says Devine. It has to be really integrated into the physical experience. It has to augment it and add a layer that you dont have with the physical space.

The shift to digital is beginning to permeate museum culture

Pamela Horn, acting director of digital and emerging media at Cooper Hewitt, acknowledges the pervasive change that has taken shape since the museums digital revamp. Something very interesting has been happening in the last three years since we have reopened, and thats that we've had an internal cultural shift of everybody adapting to this way of working, she reflects. Digital isn't just an appendage on top, it has infiltrated all of the departments.

And so far, museum leaders are pleased with the results.

Though Devine does not believe that the Explorer app on its own is responsible for attracting more visitors, she says that the museums research on the apps effectiveness revealed that visitors who used the app found the whole museum experience more thought-provoking, on average, than those who did not use the app.

Ellis similarly cites internal research which found that 90 percent of people who used the VR headset to explore the prayer bead at the Met thought it was highly successful (including a group of visiting nuns who reportedly got a big kick out of it). Perhaps most striking of all, Horn notes that Cooper Hewitts digital redesign has attracted younger visitors at a time when the coveted demographic seems to have reduced its museum attendance overall. Before the museum closed for renovations in 2011, the average age of Cooper Hewitt visitors hovered around 60 years old. After its reopening in December 2014, the average age has dropped precipitously to 27.

But success like this requires significant commitment.

The key is having a digital person as part of the senior management team and a digital team thats really, really strong, says Baumann. And a funder.

Financing these projects is a crucial challenge, and many of the museums have relied on outside donations to fund their experiments. Support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, for example, facilitated both the Cooper Hewitt renovations and the development of the Museum of Natural Historys Explorer app.

Museum staff also emphasized the necessary balance between embracing the digital and preserving the analog features of museums.

We are the museum of the future. Despite being in [Andrew] Carnegies mansion, which was built in 1899, finished in 1902, you come in and you know immediately that its a digital experience, Baumann explains. Still, her team had to be careful not to overdo it: We didnt want to put digital all over the walls, ceiling, ground. The fifteen new tables with touch-screen digital displays are scattered spaciously throughout the museums multiple floors.

Technology should serve to enhance a visitors understanding of a museums collection

For Ellis, the original artifacts must remain a priority, and technology should serve to enhance the visitors understanding of the physical objects. With the 16th century prayer beads, you get in [the VR headset] and youre just blown away, she says, leading many visitors to return for a second look at the art in person.

Our primary focus is bringing people to the art and giving them access to the art, so we would only use a technology that allowed us to do that, she adds. Were not in it for the bells and the whistles or to show off.

Museum leaders expect upcoming years to bring a number of changes, including deeper immersion, more communal creation, and greater personalization.

Devine predicts that in a few years we will see a shift away from smartphone-focused tech and towards more wearables and updated versions of smart glasses. Though museums like the Met have already experimented with forays into virtual reality, Devine says shes excited about future experiences that will likely immerse all of the senses.

Baumann cautions, however, that technologies like VR and AR are changing so rapidly that it is hard to know how museums will eventually take advantage of their capabilities. Where are we going to be six months from now? she asks. I dont want to unveil something unless its right-on.

For Trakinski and her work on data visualization, the future revolves around communal creativity, like open source projects that elicit involvement from partner institutions and outside developers. She cites the Museum of Natural Historys current involvement in the NASA-funded project OpenSpacean open source data visualization software to communicate space exploration to the general publicas an example of a growing movement.

I think sharing resources, sharing knowledge, open source software development, customization, [and] using common tools is something of a trend that I would see driving all of our work forward in a communal context, she says.

The Met has similarly chosen to share more of its resources and encourage communal creativity. In February, the museum released a collection of more than 375,000 images for public use under a Creative Commons license.

How can we take one physical space and present it differently to different people?

One element receives nearly unanimous support from museum leaders: personalizing the experiences of future museum-goers. Devine adds that such customization is one of the key opportunities of digital technology, allowing designers to ask, How can we take one physical space and present it differently to different people?

She expects that future iterations of the Explorer app will feature multiple languages and new capacities to promote relevant content based on the time of day, like where to find an afternoon coffee or how to exit the building after 5 p.m. The idea is to try and anticipate what you need in that momentand then thats different for different peopleand then provide that to you without you having to navigate to it, she explains.

She also envisions personalization of the museums website, where different visitors will see different content: Museum members wouldnt need to be shown information on how to become a member, mobile visitors in New York might see ticketing services first, and teachers would find educational materials upfront.

Baumann likewise reflects on her goals for a customizable future. She thinks about a group of visitors surrounding one of the digital tables, each drawing or researching individually with their Pens, and would love it if a 7-year-old can have his experience, and then the Pratt student studying industrial design can have a slightly more advanced experience.

The most popular spot in the Cooper Hewitt museum is the second-floor Immersion Room. Inside, two of the walls are covered by giant screens where a variety of patterns and wallpapers flash on rotation. Using the touch-screen table in the center of the room, visitors can choose their preferred wall dcor from among several hundred samples shown on the screen, or they can use their electronic pen to draw their own design and then project it all around them. The same space can be uniquely personalized based on individual taste.

The future of museums sounds a lot like the Immersion Room, as a single museum may eventually provide customized experiences for each person who enters. Knowing the digital platforms that exist out there, Baumann says, the opportunity is huge.

Excerpt from:

20000-year-old artifacts, 21st century technology - The Verge

TOM PULLAR-STRECKER

Last updated08:56, May 8 2017

STUFF.CO.NZ

Blockchain, the technology behind virtual currency Bitcoin, is a large focus at Techweek 2017.

Virtual currency Bitcoin has been "more of a curse" than a blessing for blockchain.

So says 3months.com director Mark Pascall, organiser of theBlockchain.nz a three-day conference featuring 30 international speakers that kicks off in Auckland today as part of Techweek.

It is thanks to blockchain technology that Bitcoins are impossible to counterfeit and hard to steal, despite only existing on computers.

LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERS

Blockchain technology is the reason bitcoin is impossible to counterfeit and hard to steal.

But Bitcoin has been a controversial poster boy for the technology, because the most obvious reason for using Bitcoin is to hide financial transactions from authorities.

READ MORE: *Blockchain could cut real estate costs by streamlining transactions *Mike O'Donnell: Volkswagen, Blockchain, and the fear of disruption

Regrettably, the most common reason most Kiwi "mums and dads" might want Bitcoin is to pay off a fraudster after a ransomware attack.

But Pascall says the applications of blockchaintechnology extend far beyond the financial world.

Examples of data that we frequently mistrust are more common than one might think, and this is where theblockchaincomes into its own.

It could help employers ensure foreign qualifications are legitimate, track diamonds to provide assurancethey come from ethical sources, and stamp out the falsification of car odometers.

Blockchain is notoriously difficult to explain, Pascallnotes.

But it involves distributing records of transactions such as Bitcoin payments across many interlinked computers, each of which keeps a complete history of past transactions.

The result is a distributed ledger that is less prone to errors and falsification than a traditional, centralised database.

If car yards entered vehicle odometer readings into a blockchain each time a vehicle was serviced or sold, for example, they would be nigh on impossible to doctor.

Blockchain could also allow a ride-sharing service "without Uber", or a trading platform that didn't require an intermediary such as Trade Me, Pascall says.

A clue to the breadth of the applications is that the speakers at Blockchain.nz include a former chief executive of Estonia's Nasdaq Tallin stock exchange, Kaidi Ruusalepp, and Professor John Halamka, innovation professor at Harvard Medical School.

Australian online travel agent Webjet is expected to explain at the conference how it has been working with blockchain technology to try to eliminate the mix-ups that can occur with hotel bookings.

It is not just data that can be stored in the form of "blocks". Instructions can also be embedded into the blockchain, Pascall explains.

"We can now cement in 'sets of rules' that might call for a will to be executed, or a bet or a mortgage, and no bank or government can stop that transaction happening. That will have huge implications for the way world commerce works."

Blockchain enthusiasts have been lobbying the Government to amend the Electronic Transaction Act, to make it explicit that contracts executed through blockchain are valid, he says.

Bell Gully says the Arizona state government "broke legal ground" by making that explicit in its equivalent legislation. It would remove uncertainty if the New Zealand government followed suit, the law firm said.

Pascall says blockchain has been through "a few hype cycles".

3months' sister company Blockchainlabs.nz has sometimes had to advise clients that a conventional database is sufficient for their needs.

"But there are really clear benefits when you might have an issue over who is trusted to run a database.

"The other thing is, the more centralised databases we have, the bigger the prize for hackers."

Pascall says New Zealand is lagging somewhat applying blockchain, but he hopes the conference will change that. Three hundred people will attend, including many from government.

Given the number of international speakers, the conference has been a big financial risk, he says.

Fairfax Media is the media partner for Techweek'17 which is a week of events bringing together New Zealand's brightest technology and innovation talent to tackle global issues with local ingenuity from May 6 to May 14, techweek.co.nz

-Stuff

More:

Blockchain technology could increase the trust in data that we never knew we'd lost - Stuff.co.nz