Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 71

The Mask That Displays Your Emotions In Real Time

Rather than wearing your emotions on your sleeve, a new product called the Hyperface lets you wear them on your face. The idea from London-based designer Eun Kyung Shin is to use a visor-like headset to create a new visual method for communications where we could understand each other more deeply without depending on emotional intelligence. It is the perfect use for learning technology like AI which will get smarter over time and use what it learns about our emotions to operate in more human-...

Books Are Getting “Swearier” And This Is What It Means …

Apparently the shift towards swear words in book titles and content has not gone unnoticed by researchers. As Cory Doctorow notes in this article: “books are getting swearier and [researchers concluded] that this is a bellwether for a growth in the value of individualism.” I have definitely noticed this shift in non-fiction books (The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck, You Are A Badass and F*ck Feelings to name a few) but the connection to a rise in individualism explains a lot about our collec...

How To Spot A Fake Viral Video

For a crash course in figuring out what is real and what isn’t online, who better to turn to than a YouTuber who has built a reputation out of debunking viral videos and showing what techniques they have used. While you could go frame by frame to see the tricks, the more useful conclusion from this piece is that the first step is to question whether something is actually real. In a world filled with fake content, this simple habit of skepticism first is a powerful lesson that we should all he...

Nokia Wants To Be Known For Digital Health And VR

Though most people still think of Nokia as a cell phone maker, that unit of their business was sold off to Microsoft years ago and the brand has slowly been focusing its attention elsewhere. Now the brand wants to build its reputation around digital wellness and VR. Yet changing this type of long held perception about a brand is a hard thing – particularly when that brand continues to license its name to make new products in the category they no longer want to be known for.

Read the full stor...

How An “Anger Room” Can Help You Manage Your Rage

The world is angry and people are holding on to plenty of rage … so it’s perhaps no surprise that “Anger Rooms” are taking off. The reason why is perfectly summed up in this quote from the founder of one of them: “I think that part of what’s going on here is that breaking stuff gives people back their edge. Imagine getting fired. It sucks. It’s defeating. Or you got dumped, or you didn’t get into the college you wanted, or imagine whatever it is that makes you feel weak. This is a place where...

Esports Could Be An Olympic Sport By 2024

After years of pushback, some people think that esports may be on the verge of recognition as a “real” sport – courtesy of the International Olympic Committee. While a final ruling won’t come until 2019, the IOC is considering adding esports as a way to entice younger viewers to the Olympics. It wouldn’t be the first time sports were added as “exhibitions” in order to appeal to a different demographic … the same thing happened around BMX Biking which is now a full-fledged Olympic sport. And e...

Can Artificial Intelligence Help Measure Food By Its Ingredients?

We already have Artificial Intelligence using features like facial recognition to personalize experiences for us, but this story about “AI Gastronomy” looks forward to a future where we might be able to reverse engineer many things about food simply from relying on AI to recognize and measure ingredients. This could allow us to “scan” the nutritional benefits of a particular meal, better track our health and even eventually have food automatically prepared for us that meets our specific dieta...

The NuturePod Offers A Scary Prediction Of Future Parenting

Sometimes art is the best way to shine a lens on how our culture may be changing for better … or worse, as is the case with a hypothetical near-future product called the “NuturePod” created by artist and experimental futurist Stuart Candy. The installation on exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp, Belgium envisions a “programmable para-parenting pod” that offers automated parenting care for your infant at the touch of a button. It’s a tantalizing and scary vision of what the fu...

Writer Of Str@nge% Password Guidelines Finally Admits He Was Wrong

If you ever wanted someone to blame for having to change your password every 90 days – last week the world found out who that person is. Former National Institute of Standards and Technology manager Bill Burr recently admitted to the WSJ that his 2003 password guidelines were unnecessarily harsh. The new guidelines suggest removing the 90-day password refresh requirement and the requirement for special characters. Instead, it suggests to use a phrase of words that doesn’t make any sense, but...

How Brands and Small Town America Are Cashing In On The Eclipse

As the highly anticipated solar eclipse approaches, there are plenty of towns and brands finding creative ways to cash in. Chiquita created a humorous video about the impending “Banana Sun,” there are “eclipse chasing” flights selling for $10,000 and Krispy Kreme even created an “eclipse donut.” This article takes a deeper look at the windfall that seems to be approaching small town America as it gets ready for what promises to be a gridlock of people traveling to destinations along the proje...