Sleep plays an important role in our wellbeing. Researchers have discovered that during this important activity, brain synapses, which are the connection between neurons, are able to shrink by 20 percent of normal in order to reset and prepare for the full day ahead.

The researchers discovered that after sleep, the brain synapses begin to grow stronger again as they constantly receive new input throughout the day. This type of reset consisting in the shrinking of brain synapses is called synaptic homeostasis. It allows us to rest and forget non-essential information, which otherwise could lead the connections to become overloaded and eventually burn out. Thus, the process in important for self-preservation.

Dr. Chiara Cirelli, the co-author of the study and a researcher at the Wisconsin-Madison center for Sleep and Consciousness, stated that sleep is the optimal time where the brain synapses can reset because during the day humans tend to be active, always receiving some form of input, being stimulated and learning something new. However, during sleep our brains are not focused on the outside world as much, allowing the synapses to reset.

Cirelli initially proposed the hypothesis of synaptic homeostasis in collaboration with her colleague, Dr. Giulio Tononi, back in the year 2003. However, only now were they able to have direct visual evidence of the phenomenon, which manifests itself through the shrinking of the synapses.

For their study, they analyzed the activity of brain synapses in mice when they were asleep. The study, published in the journal Science, consisted in an intricate experiment over a period of four years. Their findings confirm the fact that sleep helps humans consolidate their memories and allows us to continue to learn.

The analysis of the mice’s brain synapses was conducted using a new type of electron microscopy. This technology is able to identify small changes in the brain’s synapses as they shrink and expand, even at the nanometer level. They found that the synapses were 18 percent smaller only after a few hours of sleep. This phenomenon occurred in around 80 percent of synapses, with the largest ones did not experience any changes.

What do you think about the changes in the brain synapses? How often and how much do you sleep during a normal day?

Image source: Wikimedia

A team of MIT scientists has developed an app which could make it easier to read the conversation emotions. This could help people determine if the speaker is actually excited.

Most anyone must have been in the following situation. You are talking with someone. And they are telling you a sad story. Or, on the contrary, a happy one. But some people may make you wonder. Are they actually happy or sad? Now, a team of scientists may have just offered a solution.

The research team comes from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or MIT. They are part of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory or CSAIL. They have been involved in an ongoing study.

This targets the study of emotion detection. The scientists have already released studies on the matter. And they also presented some of their developed devices. For example, last fall, they built a new device. This was able to detect human emotions. How? By using wireless signals.

Now, the team took the device one step further. Earlier this week, they presented a software that can detect conversation emotions. This was incorporated into an app. One targeted specifically for wearables.

It should be able to follow a conversation. And as such, identify the emotions behind the dialog. This conversation emotions tool should work for every part of the speech.

During testing, the researchers incorporated the app into a fitness tracker. It should be able to offer information in real time. The app works as follows. During conversations, it collects speech data. And also physical information. It then analyzes the overall tone.

Based on these elements, it should provide the conversation emotions result. And it can also offer part specific information. It can be used to determine if one was sad or another happy.

This app will track the emotions in five-second intervals. As such, it can also track and point out changes. It can determine if the person had a change of tone.

The analyzed physical change will be targeting the following. They will be monitoring the participant’s skin temperature. And also their heart rate or physical movement. Waving or crossing your arms are considered tell-tale signs.

This new app is AI-powered. The AI or artificial intelligence makes use of neural networks. These can analyze and compare huge amounts of data. And they can also acquire need data. By learning, such technology should also become “smarter”. And also offer better results.

The researchers also carried out some field tests. They asked the participants to wear a Simband. Their conversation emotion app had been previously installed. Overall results reported the following. The neural networks were 83 percent accurate in reporting the conversation’s tone.

In most cases, the AI system associated the emotion as follows. Monotonous vocals interrupted by long pauses were considered sad. Speech patterns that varied were considered happy. These are just a few, base emotions.

Research is hoping to further develop the emotions spectrum. They are hoping to add more complex, nuanced feelings. More details about the current software were offered in a study paper. This was released on February 01 by CSAIL. The paper was titled as follows. “Predicting Latent Narrative Mood using Audio and Physiologic Data”.

Research on the matter will continue. According to one of the study members, such an app could have varied uses. It could help people with anxiety. Or even persons diagnosed with medical conditions such as Asperger’s.

Image Source: Wikimedia

Piaggio is known for its Vespa motor scooters. Now the company designed a different device that is going to make shopping a lot easier for us. Did you ever buy too many things and couldn’t carry them? Well, you won’t have that problem anymore because of the cargo-carrying robot.

Piaggio just launched a cargo-carrying robot named Gita. You can now buy more stuff because you have something that is going to carry everything. The company reinvented itself and entered another market, that of robots.

They designed Gita in order to make it easier for people to carry everything they want while they are walking or shopping. They believe that they can make people give up their cars and start walking when they are doing grocery shopping. This cargo-carrying robot is a round ball that has wheels.

Gita is designed to follow you anywhere you want it to. It can carry more than 20 kg of grocery while you walk home after doing shopping. The cargo-carrying robot is going to follow you no matter how fast you walk. It can reach a speed of 35 km/h.

The device can carry your supplies in a store or even outdoor. The company that designed Gita mentioned that they are building these devices in order to have a better environment. This is a greener alternative to scooters and cars.

With the help of Gita people won’t need their cars when they go shopping. They can walk while Gita carries the grocery back home. The fact that the robot is small is great because it won’t disturb other people in the shop or outside. This “suitcase” has a diameter of 66cm.

The company announced that they are planning on launching this cargo-carrying robot on Feb 2nd in Boston. The best feature of this robot is that is can work autonomously. Delivery companies can use these devices in order to send items where they want.

This robot can be a great alternative from people who usually buy a lot of things when they go shopping. It can also be a great device for small business. We’ll have to wait and see how it works when Piaggio releases it.

Would you buy this type of device? Do you think that it is useful?

Image source: Wikipedia

Slack, the business communication and transfer service, has experienced a high rise in popularity for its demographic, despite being launched just three years ago. The service has around 5 million daily users, with around 1.5 million being paid subscribers. Now, the company set its eyes on the big fish of the industry, enterprises.

Slack was mainly designed and used by small and medium business, but as the company grows and refines its service, it’s also seeking to expand beyond its traditional user base. The company will try to garner the attention of enterprises, those companies of up to 500,000 employees.

For this purpose, Slack has announced that it has launched its Enterprise Grid tools suite. Having been in development for over a year, the new service does not only offer an enterprise-grade version of their current apps and tools, but it will also come with a series of new features.

Among the new Enterprise Grid features, the most notable are the business analytics and intelligence tools, a new type of search which will allow users to search for files across the entire system. It will also suggest content and various contacts to users in order to promote interaction across the various levels of a company. Unfortunately, these features are not yet available and will roll out to all enterprise users later this year.

With the launch of the Enterprise Grid suite of tools, Slack has also announced some of its initial customers which include financial services like Paypal, IBM, and Capital One. It is somewhat unusual to see IBM as a client considering that it has its own collaboration product for enterprises, IBM connections while working on an AI business intelligence product known as Watson Workspace.

The Enterprise Grid includes several other features like IT admins being able to manage and provision more teams, new layers of security and identity management, compliance controls and data loss prevention features.

Despite the launch of Enterprise Grid, Slack has not revealed the pricing for its new service. Interested companies will have to apply directly to Slack. However, it’s worth remembering that its initial service costs between $8 to $15 per month and included two different tiers.

Image credit: Slack

In recent years, there have been launched several TV streaming apps trying to emulate the success of Netflix. However, it seems that a large number of apps have only made it harder for new and interesting apps to stand out against more established services. Now, Comcast is trying its luck having begun its beta test for the Xfinity TV app on Roku.

Comcast has announced that anyone with a Roku set-top box released in the last two years or those who own a Roku TV, can now install the Xfinity TV app and try out its content and features in a beta test. The official version of the app will make its way to all interested consumers later this year.

The recent news comes after almost a year since Comcast announced that it’s developing the Xfinity TV app for Roku devices and Samsung TVs. This level of integration will allow consumers to watch their favorite live channels without having to pay the cost of cable or even that of a cable box.

The announcement was made by Andrew Ferrone, Roku’s Vice-president of Pay TV, who stated that Roku owners will be able to watch both live and on-demand programming from a variety of sources such as local broadcast or even their cloud DVR recordings. The content will be delivered over Comcast’s privately managed network.

If you’re interested in the Xfinity app, you can install from Roku’s channel store. The participants in the beta test will have access to the full extent of live and on-demand content. However, they won’t be able to either rent or purchase content or even be able to play previously purchased content through the app.

Furthermore, the Roku device will need to be connected to your local Wi-Fi Network in order for the Xfinity TV app to function. The app won’t work if the streaming device is connected to a different network.

Comcast has revealed that the content delivered through the app is not internet-based so you will not rack up your internet bill if you have a limited plan. Instead, the app uses  Title VI cable service provided by Comcast, and therefore it won’t count to the data usage plan.

Image source: Roku

Although Lyft is not as popular as Uber, that does not mean the company will just roll over for other services. Quite the opposite, Lyft is keen on constantly improving their service and infrastructure. The latest update comes to the Lyft app which has received some new features.

Lyft app users will now be able to set destinations into your calendar. Users can register various addresses like home, work or any other, in order to get to their destination faster. Furthermore, the Lyft app can even make destinations suggest based on the events you have registered in your calendar.

The new update is gradually rolling out to users and will start to sync your phone’s built-in calendar to the Lyft app. After the update is completed, when you click on the destination field within the app, you will be able to see destination for the various events that are recorded in your calendar within the coming month.

On Android, the calendar sync will happen automatically, but if you use the Lyft app on iOS, you will have to sync third-party calendar apps to the iPhone in order to make use of this new feature. Additionally, users will have to type the full address of a venue or event in the location field of the calendar in order to show up in the Lyft app.

Another interesting feature included in the Lyft update is that users will soon be able to add all of their favorite places compared to the only two pre-set destinations you can set, for now, home and work. This feature is a great way to save time when you order a Lyft car for destinations you visit often like a supermarket or a friend’s house.

Uber has also introduced a similar feature dubbed Calendar Shortcuts. It offers a faster way to access destinations for an upcoming event. However, it still does not come with any more pre-set destinations other than home or work, but it may be in the works considering Lyft is already implementing it.

What service do you prefer Uber of Lyft? Are you excited about the new features coming in the last update for the Lyft app?

Image source: Wikimedia

Apple has announced today that it has released the beta version of the watchOS 3.2 to developers. The beta build allows app creators to integrate Siri within certain functions of their apps as well as add the new theater mode.

In the last period, virtual assistant and voice commands have come to the forefront of technologies as an increasing number of manufacturers have added this type of features to their devices. Now, Apple has decided to step up its smartwatch game by providing third-party support for Siri in the form of the SiriKit, which developers can use to integrate Siri with various functions of their apps.

It will allow users who will use the apps to make voice commands for the specific functions. It will very likely be used mostly for messaging and workout apps, but any additional options for users and developers are welcomed.

The second main feature to be included with the watchOS 3.2 beta is called the Theater mode. Although the feature is meant to be used while you’re watching a movie, either in the cinema or at home with a group of friends, it can be used for various activities like when you are using an Apple watch to monitor your heart rate during sleep. Once enabled, the theater mode mutes all the sound of your watch and even prevents the screen from lighting up if you raise your wrist.

Unfortunately, if you prefer complete silence without completely turning off the device, Theater Mode will still buzz as you receive notifications. However, you will need to either tap the screen or press its Digital Crown to use it.

Nonetheless, the new mode is a step in the right direction as Apple is still working on a sleep tracker, despite the Apple Watch not having a built-in app for this purpose. Third-party apps like Autosleep or Cardiogram have tried to fill in the void, providing users with sleep data like when they woke up or their heart rate spikes.

Apple has not announced when the watchOS 3.2 will be available for consumers, but you shouldn’t have to wait very long, based on previous releases.

What do you think about the new features in the beta build?

Image source: Pexels

Facebook announced earlier this week that it will be rolling out a limited testing of its new Messenger app ads which could appear on the start screen.

The company released an announcement on the matter on Wednesday. On January 25, Facebook published an official blog post. It in, it presented the potential new Messenger app ads system.

At least for the moment, the test is very narrow. It is being rolled out in just 2 countries. These are Thailand and Australia. Facebook Messenger app users may start seeing ads on their start screen.

Testing will begin in just a few weeks’ time. Just a limited number of users will be involved. Facebook explained its decision to roll out the test. According to the blog post, the Messenger app ads are an opportunity for businesses. It can help make their products more visible.

The social media giant also went to explain the process. According to the statement, ads will be displayed solely on the start screen. More exactly, they will not appear in a conversation.

These new Messenger app ads will work as follows. They will be based on the Facebook ad campaign system. More exactly, they will appear as sponsored messages. The system is already generally used on Facebook.

And in some cases, also on the Messenger app. But only in case specific situations. Users can already receive sponsored ad messages. But only if they have previously interacted with the respective brand.

The Messenger app ads will also have a similar such feature. Sponsored ad messages may spring up in a conversation. But only if the user is chatting with the brand selling them.

Messenger ads will have the same base system as the Facebook News Feed ones. More exactly, advertisers will use the same parameters. They currently target users on a specific set of data. This does not and will not include private messages.

Facebook’s Messenger app ads tests should not intrude on the user. They will still have control over their app. The users involved in the tests will have several options. They will be able to hide the ads. Or they can even report them. Both options will be accessible from the drop-down menu.

Messenger app ads will be displayed below the most recent conversations. For example, just think of the birthday notifications. These surface on the Messenger mobile app. The ads’ location is also similar to that of the active users bar.

Still, neither feature will disappear because of the ads. These later will just be placed on top. Birthdays and active users will come after them.

The Messenger app ads tests will be limited. And it remains to be seen if they will be expanded. The decision will probably be based on the user response. This latter will probably also determine its widespread usage.

If the tests are unsuccessful, the program will most likely remain just a test. The public rollout is not guaranteed. But neither denied.

The Facebook Messenger service has over a billion active users. This is just the monthly count. Estimates also show that more than a billion messages are sent every month. And these are just in between customers and businesses.

Presently, the tests target only the Messenger app ads. It remains to be seen or announced if Facebook will also be targeting a similar campaign for the web page version.

Image Source: Flickr

During the Bett education technology conference held in London, Google was present to make several announcements regarding its Chromebook program. More specifically, how Google Chromebooks have made a difference in the lives of students and teachers and how can they even become more useful in the future.

Google was quick to emphasize the fact that around 20 million teachers and students around the world use Google Chromebooks at least weekly. Furthermore, the G Suite for Education program has over 70 million worldwide. However, the most noteworthy aspect of the presentation was the showcasing of two new Google Chromebooks, the Asus Chromebook C213 and Acer Chromebook Spin 11.

Furthermore, Google has also announced that in the near future, they will give system admins full control over all the Android apps which run on the Google Chromebooks given to students. Adobe also revealed that it will release a new series of creative apps optimized for all Chromebook laptops.

With these announcements, Google tries to build to capitalize on the early success of their laptops for students and teachers. Since the release of Android apps on the Google’s Chrome OS, Chromebooks have transformed from niche devices to versatile laptops.

Both of the upcoming Google Chromebooks from Asus and Acer will include support for a stylus pen, USB-C charging systems, as well as world-facing cameras. This type of camera is quite useful especially for convertible laptops since it can act as the camera on the back of a regular tablet, unlike current convertible which only has a user-oriented camera.

As they are mostly meant for schools, the upcoming Google Chromebooks are not breaking any new ground in terms of hardware. However, the Acer Spin model will have either a dual or quad-core Intel Celeron CPU with 4GB or 8GB of RAM, and up to 64 GB of eMMC flash storage. Asus did not yet provide any specs for its upcoming device.

Nonetheless, both devices are built quite sturdy and can survive falls from up to 48 inches, and can handle a few spills. The upcoming Google Chromebooks have not yet been priced at the moment, but they will be available in the late days of spring.

What do you think about Google’s announcements?

Image source: Wikimedia

One of the best ways for tech companies to improve their service is to listen to its community’s request and feedback regarding certain features and functions. Slack, one of the world’s most popular work chat apps has finally decided to add threaded messages.

The feature has long been requesting by its users, ever since the launch of the app. It is unclear why the company decided to only now implement the feature. Nonetheless, Slack users will start receiving the new app update. Thanks to threaded messages, users are now able to keep conversations regarding a specific topic contained into a single thread, much like how many forums work.

The news about the launch of threaded messages comes from a company blog post. It states that the feature has been designed in such a way that will allow conversations regarding a specific topic to remain outside the main chat channel.

The feature is simple and easy to use. Any users looking to start a new thread only need to hover over any message, wait for the small menu option to appear and then select the “start a thread” button. This allows the users to type in their response to the specific message they selected.  All the replies to a message will be grouped in a thread located on the sidebar. A small link will show up below the initial message and it will showcase all the users who have replied to it as well as the total number of replies.

The threaded messages feature allows users to chat more efficiently without crowding chat channels and mixing the main conversation with various replies to specific messages.  Furthermore, the feature will enable the company to compete against other similar services like Microsoft Teams, which has promoted its threaded replies feature as a key aspect of its platform.

Microsoft also decided to make its Teams platform more available starting next month. Many developers and IT professionals are optimistic that it will be able to compete more efficiently with Slack, as long as it is able to innovate and improve their service at a much faster rate

Do you use Slack of Microsoft Teams? If so, what do you think about the threaded messages feature?

Image source: Slack