project alias is designed to give users more control over their smart assistants, both when it comes to customisation and privacy. it’s composed of a 3D-printed top layer, a mic array, raspberry pi, and two speakers. it sits atop the a smart speaker like amazon alexa or google home, playfully made to look like a living organism that has taken over.
(via this ‘parasite’ protects your privacy by feeding smart speakers white noise)
The Discretion Barrier solves a problem common in many office environments—disruption by people talking on the phone. The simple design provides enough of a physical and acoustic barrier to offer privacy without isolation. The frame enables an additional layer of privacy with added functionality as a coatrack.
(via RIT students collaborate with Herman Miller to create designs to enhance collaboration.)
Might also be useful for personal video calls (e.g. Facetime) as well.
Facebook is worth 212 billion dollars by having a strong hold on your actions, interests, and preferences from 5pm to 9am and some fraction of your work day. If only it could get a legitimate way to suss out your interests from 9am to 5, that’s presumably twice the data it can mine to improve its targeting on you and me. Presumably, twice the Total Addressable Market. It’s just too lucrative to not fully know what you and I do for all those 8 hours. Investors should love this.
A Canadian law firm will use data from a Fitbit fitness tracker for the first time in court as an objective measure of activity.
The data will be provided by the plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit in an effort to show life-affecting reduced activity post injury. But the case has implications for fitness trackers and smartwatches, including Motorola’s Moto 360 and Apple’s upcoming Apple Watch that can track movement.
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This generation of newborns is the first to be brought up by parents who grew up with facebook. This results in the fact that nearly half of the newly born babies is visible online within the first day after birth. I wouldn’t want that, but my research showed differently. A lot of people didn’t think of it as a problem, as their kid was part of their lives. The only negative thing mentioned, was the fact that the baby has no say in it. This resulted in the making of four baby-products, with which the baby can put himself online. To make people think about the use of social media, and how this influences the life of this new generation. What is considered to be okay, and when does it go too far? And, even more important: who is in charge of that decision?
- Laura Cornet: New Born Fame