Category Archives: Technology

We are well accustomed to hearing the term free agent thrown around in the world of professional sports, used to describe a player who is able to act freely without being controlled by someone else. But what if I told you that this concept stretched beyond the field of any professional sports arena, and has made its way into the realm of technology?

Over the last decade, technologists have watched the steady rise of agnostic technology. This shift has been long overdue in industries like hospitality and not without resistance and obstacles. After all, hospitality is an industry built on tradition, while guest expectations are informed by a world built on innovation. Historically, the weve always done it this way mindset has had a somewhat insidious impact on the maintenance and evolution of core hospitality processes and platforms, leaving hotels in the technological dark ages, while the travelers they hope to attract live in the future. But, as the saying goes, adapt or die and in the realm of hospitality, this can be better understood as innovate, or be left behind. Now, as hoteliers move to embrace this ideology and position their properties for digital reform, agnostic technology has found itself in the drivers seat.

In simple terms, agnostic technology refers to platforms that are interoperable among various systems. An agnostic system can function in a variety of environments and is often preferred by those who are unbiased towards the use of different technology tools to address the unique needs of a business. Rather than adhering to the one-size-fits-all framework of legacy platforms, which were often immobile and difficult to scale or connect with other platforms, a technology-agnostic approach favors the use of open APIs and microservices infrastructure.

The Microservices Difference

In hospitality, we talk a lot about industry buzzwords; guest experience, personalization, the new normal the list is virtually endless. But from the perspective of a technologist, there is one buzzword we should remain hyper-focused on in 2022: microservices.

For those unfamiliar, a microservice architecture consists of loosely-coupled services and applications, which can work independently of other applications. These distributed services are hosted on an open API, which allows for easy communication and integration across applications while ensuring each business requirement is handled by its own microservice. Think of this like a divide and conquer approach, existing in direct contrast to the all-in-one framework of legacy, monolithic platforms. This can also be better understood when we consider the jack of all trades, master of none adage; do you want the platform that promises to do everything at the cost of specificity and performance, or do you want to rely on a collection of specialized applications that definitely master and optimize their respective requirements?

To be clear, this is different from silo applications, where the various applications have to have interfaces to transfer data between them. Microservices are meant to be interoperable, allowing for relatively frictionless sharing of information via composite services or mashups.

Across industries, business leaders are increasingly keen on the use of microservices, often crediting their enhanced scalability, efficiency, security, and customization potential as the primary selling point. In fact, 88% of the 1,056 IT executives, developers executives, and middle-level executives surveyed by IBM in 2021 either agree or agree completely that microservices offer many benefits. Moreover, in 2021, Statista revealed that 85% of respondents from large organizations with 5,000 or more employees are currently using microservices.

From a scalability perspective, the benefit of a microservice architecture is undeniable. Where legacy platforms were largely resistant to scale and evolution (or subject to hefty upgrade/integration fees), microservice platforms are built horizontally and run independently. They can therefore be adjusted without impacting the whole system. This means hoteliers can add, remove, update or otherwise change each microservice platform with ease and, in turn, scale at whatever pace their property requires to remain competitive. This infrastructure also mitigates service delays, as operational problems (although rare) will be contained within the affected microservice and will not negatively impact other platforms.

Learning from Legacy Mistakes

Its important to glean lessons from those who came before us and paved the way to our current landscape. There is, perhaps, no better example of the shift from legacy technology to a microservice, agnostic approach than Netflix. The popular streaming platform, founded in 1997, has seen many evolutions over the two decades. In 2008, Netflix began an infrastructure transformation after a significant service disruption.

Unfortunately, at that time, Netflix was still relying on a monolith platform which, as we know, is challenging to scale and evolve in response to increased platform demand. The result? Netflix experienced a 3-day service failure which, as you can surely imagine, left their customers quite disappointed. From this point on, Netflix set its sights on a more agile, fault-tolerant solution: a cloud-based infrastructure utilizing microservices.

To accomplish this, Netflix partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon, providing on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. Netflix was able to leverage AWSs highly reliable databases and cloud infrastructure to enhance scalability and service availability. This, in turn, improves service quality for users and gives Netflix the ability to easily change, adapt, or improve any services, while tracking individual service performance and isolating any issues that arise.

In the past, hoteliers may have been deterred by the idea of disparate systems, mainly because this required multiple vendors and complicated integration protocols. Today, however, with cloud-based infrastructure and vendors that specialize in microservice architecture, hoteliers get the best of both worlds: one vendor partnership and a comprehensive, easily integrated stack of programs and applications suited specifically to the needs of their property.

Technology is meant to empower and scale, not restrict or constrain. In this sense, technology should quite literally be limitless. While its easy to understand the former appeal of monolithic solutions, its also easy to understand why this framework can no longer support business growth in an increasingly agile and digitized world. The brands that survive and thrive are those that readily embrace and utilize the interoperable tools required to remain one step ahead of consumer demands.

It is precisely this ideology the embrace of the free agent that informed the creation of Above Property Services (APS). We knew that hospitality leaders would finally unlock access to future-proof technology if we created an ecosystem that was virtually limitless in its scalability, interoperability and without any contractual barriers to the adoption of new technology and platforms. Built from the ground up, the APS ecosystem empowers continuous development and refinement of hoteliers critical business processes via a microservice architecture. It delivers an agile, cost-effective solution that continuously adapts to the needs of the hotelier not the other way around.

There is simply no denying it; this is the hospitality industrys free agent, and it will change the way hoteliers play the game moving forward.

Above Property is leading the charge to deliver innovative, scalable, and services-oriented platforms for the global travel industry and other related verticals. We think differently, and we are constantly innovating. Above Property Services (APS) offers the only platform that can evolve seamlessly in response to industry demands, with credit to a microservices architecture that empowers continuous development and refinement.

Built from the ground up, the APS ecosystem empowers continuous development and refinement of your critical business processes via a unique microservice architecture. Designed for performance, flexibility, security, and stability, the future-proof framework is up and running quickly, delivering a scalable, cost-effective solution that can work with or replace your existing tools and investments. APS is a platform that adapts to you not the other way around.

Powering both large and small companies, we understand the industry's challenges in the past, and we have developed a platform that is suited for the future.

Steve LapekasAbove Property LLC

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Embracing Agnostic Hotel and Travel Technology: Why 2022 is the Year of the Free Agent | By Aaron Shepherd - Hospitality Net

Anyone who's ever stood before that magical yet overwhelming wall o' bottles at a nail salon knows how weirdly difficult it can be to choose a nail polish color to wear for the next week or two. And picking a color at the store? Bringing an entire bottle home for the purpose of using it more than once? Even when it's affordable, it feels like a major commitment and a potentially regrettable one if the color under the glass doesn't end up looking the same on your fingertips. (And no, unless there's a designated tester, it's not OK to just open up a bottle and try it on.)

So, what's an extremely indecisive perfectionist (henceforth to be referred to as "you") to do when it's time to buy what you're hoping is not only the perfect color for a certain occasion but a color from which your nail-polish wardrobe could truly benefit for months to come? Easy: Use Sally Hansen's amazing new virtual try-on technology.

Starting today, you can use your phone to try on hundreds of Sally Hansen shades from across the brand's collections Insta-Dri, Color Therapy, Miracle Gel, and more without opening a single bottle. No mess, no mistakes, and no chance of wasting your money on a color that isn't what you were expecting. And no app, either! You can do it all right on sallyhansen.com.

This new feature marks the first-to-market application of a technology by Perfect Corp. called AgileHand. Instead of putting a color on the nails of a photo of someone else's hand or even on a still photo of your own hand, it shows you in real-time what your moving hand looks like wearing your chosen color. You can even use a sliding tool to get an instant before-and-after comparison, as you can see in my screenshot below. (Though let's pretend we don't see how bad my before nails look right now, OK?)

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Sally Hansen's New Virtual Nail Polish Try-On Technology Means Always Picking the Perfect Color - Allure

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Augmented and Mixed Reality Market by Technology, Infrastructure, Devices, Solutions, Apps and Services in Industry Verticals 2022 - 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This mixed reality market report assesses AR, MR, and other immersive technology components, the AR/MR ecosystem, and competitive landscape.

The report evaluates market opportunities for hardware, software, and services. Analysis takes into consideration market drivers and constraints such as potential regulatory implications. The report provides detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis including forecasts for AR/MR by major hardware components, software, services, semiconductor components, and more.

Assisted or augmented reality (AR) represents a live (direct or indirect) view of a physical, real-world environment in which certain elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input. In addition to a visual overlay, AR may also provide audio and tactile inputs to the user, and rely upon presence and positioning technologies to present location-specific sensory inputs and information to the user. In this manner, AR is part of the Mixed Reality market and represents a blending of information technology and media within a real-world environment for the benefit of the consumer, business, and industrial users.

The term mixed reality (MR) pertains to a form of hybrid reality in which physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real-time. With MR, either virtual objects are digitally mixed into reality or real-world objects are merged into virtual worlds. The latter case is sometimes referred to as augmented virtuality (AV), and is one step closer to virtual reality (VR), as real-world objects in a virtual world take on a sense of permanency with real objects, appearing to actually exist within the virtual world.

Adding to this sense of permanency, real-world objects in a virtual world may be digitally controlled. Conversely, MR may also support the manipulation of virtual objects permanently placed in the real-world. In either scenario, MR will be an important aspect of teleoperation and telerobotics.

The primary goal of AR is to enrich the user's perception of the real-world, providing information and insights that otherwise would not be obtainable. AR use cases have grown substantially across many industry verticals within the last two years, providing significant market momentum, and indicating great promise to transform communications, content, and commerce across a wide range of sectors. The goals of MR are broad, yet directionally focused on a true merging of real and virtual worlds, which the publisher believes will be a major catalyst for wide-spread acceptance and usage of VR across all major industry sectors.

The growing demand of the augmented reality market in the entertainment, retail, and defense sector is encouraging manufacturers to expand their business. Both traditional advertisers and digital media companies need to get ready for increased altered reality. Advertisers are looking at using augmented reality as part of a marketing drive in order to attract new customers as well as retentive existing ones.

The AR smart glasses market is picking up pace as it inches away from being a niche product to becoming an industrial and enterprise problem solver. Mass consumer adoption is elusive, if not years away, but the market is building its ecosystem, refining hardware, and taking a more realistic approach for the long-run ramp-up of smart AR glasses.

Select Report Findings:

Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Challenges

Augmented Reality Ecosystem

Augmented and Mixed Reality Market Drivers and Opportunities

Conclusions and Recommendations

Company Analysis

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/c6vk5e

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Global $500+ Billion Augmented and Mixed Reality Markets, 2022-2027 by Technology, Infrastructure, Devices, Solutions, Apps and Services -...

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Daffy Charitable, a not-for-profit community built around an innovative new financial platform for giving, announced a $17.1M Series A financing for Aside, Inc., the company building the technology behind Daffy. The funding round was led by Ribbit Capital, joined by XYZ Capital and Coinbase Ventures, as well as over 50 notable angel investors, including industry luminaries like Reid Hoffman, Aaron Levie, Amy Chang, Dylan Field, John Lilly, and Mike Schroepfer. The funding will help Daffy scale and drive product innovations to help people be more generous, more often.

The Trillion-Dollar Generosity Gap

While Americans are already some of the most generous people in the world individuals gave over $324 billion to charity in 2020, the team at Daffy has identified a significant Generosity Gap between what people say they want to give and what they actually end up giving.

In fact, a study at the Stockholm School of Economics showed that pre-commitment, committing ahead of time, can increase the amount an individual gives by 32%. This could translate to an additional $1.27 trillion dollars donated to charity over the next ten years by 2031.

People want to be generous and help those less fortunate than themselves, but we are all busy and life gets in the way, said Adam Nash, CEO & Co-founder. My co-founder Alejandro and I believe that all of the innovations that have helped us shop, save, and plan, Daffy can also use to help people make giving a habit.

Transforming The Way The World Gives

Daffy seeks to solve the Generosity Gap by asking people up front to set a goal for how much they want to give to charity for the year. Similar to having a certain amount set aside in every paycheck in a 401(k), Daffy asks members if they want to automate those contributions by taking the Daffy Pledge, a commitment to put money aside every week, month, or quarter.

Instead of the money sitting idle, a members tax-deductible contributions are invested in one of nine modern portfolios, to maximize their potential impact. Then whenever the member wants, they can easily donate to any of over 1.5 million worthy charities across the U.S.

Daffy takes many of the amazing innovations weve seen in fintech to a large new space, charitable giving, said Ribbit Capitals Micky Malka. Within seconds, you can donate to your favorite causes and charities from anywhere. By building a seamless and habit-forming giving experience, Daffy is not only creating a better way to give but a better way to live.

For decades, charities have been looking for a way to encourage individuals to give more regularly, and Daffy is working to make this a reality, said Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose and advisor to Aside.

Launched just four months ago, Daffy has surprised many with their rapid pace of announcements in a sector not typically known for technical innovation:

About Daffy Charitable Fund

Daffy is the Donor-Advised Fund for You, a not-for-profit community built around a new, modern platform for giving, one built around the commitment to give, not the amount you give. It empowers people to make giving a habit through a seamless mobile experience that helps members set money aside for charity, watch it grow tax-free in a modern investment portfolio, and donate to more than 1.5 million charities across the U.S. Daffy (Daffy Charitable Fund) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. To give with Daffy, simply visit daffy.org or search Daffy in the App Store.

About Aside, Inc.

Aside is the venture-backed technology company focused on helping people be more generous, more often. Started by technology veterans Adam Nash (Acorns, Wealthfront, Dropbox, LinkedIn) and veteran software engineer Alejandro Crosa (Slack, Twitter, LinkedIn), and backed by Ribbit Capital, XYZ Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and Silicon Ventures, as well as over 50 prominent angel investors, Aside is focused on leveraging technology to reinvent charitable giving. Aside provides the innovative technology platform behind Daffy, a not-for-profit community built around a new modern way to give.

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Daffy Led by Technology Veteran and Longtime Investor Adam Nash Gets $17.1M Boost to Make Charitable Giving a Habit - Business Wire

The Senate is this week debating Maeves law a proposal to legalise access to new assisted reproductive techniques that will reduce the risk of parents passing on mitochondrial disease to their children.

The legislation, formally called the Mitochondrial Donation Law Reform (Maeves Law) Bill 2021, is named after Maeve Hood, a six-year-old Victorian girl who lives with Leigh syndrome a disorder in which the bodys cells fail to produce enough energy. Tragically, Maeve is unlikely to survive beyond childhood.

This weeks expected vote will be the first conscience vote in the Senate since the historic reforms to allow marriage equality in 2017, and is already being passionately debated.

But the issues raised are unlikely to be new. These reforms have already undergone extensive community consultation and been approved by the House of Representatives.

Mitochondria are energy-producing structures inside cells, which have their own DNA and are separate from the cell nucleus containing the bulk of the cells DNA (called nuclear DNA). Mitochondrial DNA is inherited entirely from the mothers egg, so if a mother has mutations in her mitochondrial DNA she is at risk of passing life-threatening conditions to her baby.

Conceiving a baby via mitochondrial donation involves implanting the mothers nuclear DNA into a healthy egg from which the nuclear genes have been removed, and using this egg for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) with a sperm. Alternatively, a procedure called pronuclear transfer can be used early in the fertilisation process a few hours after the sperm has entered the egg, but before the parental genomes come together and the fertilised egg officially becomes an embryo.

A child born via mitochondrial donation would inherit a mixture of their mothers and fathers nuclear DNA as usually occurs, along with the healthy mitochondrial DNA from the egg donor.

As a result, mitochondrial donation has sometimes been described as creating three-parent babies. But 2.002-parent babies would arguably be more accurate, given there are only 37 mitochondrial genes, compared with at least 20,000 in our nuclear DNA.

Read more: 3-parent IVF could prevent illness in many children (but it's really more like 2.002-parent IVF)

Australian law currently bans the creation of a human embryo that involves genetic material from more than two people. The ban was introduced almost 20 years ago amid fears IVF and embryo research would lead to designer babies and cloning. Maeves law would change this situation specifically to allow mitochondrial donation to prevent mitochondrial disease.

Debate around the issue has focused on a range of questions, such as: is there a risk the child could still end up with mutant mitochondrial DNA? Are there ethical issues centred on the unborn babys inability to give consent? What are the egg donors rights? Does the procedure carry other health or genetic risks?

In the United Kingdom, where mitochondrial donation research was pioneered, four scientific reviews by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and an investigation by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics were conducted between 2011 and 2016. These reviews delivered an overall conclusion that the benefits outweigh the harms if regulated appropriately, and Britain legalised mitochondrial donation in 2015.

In Australia, mitochondrial donation has been considered by a series of inquiries, including a 2018 Senate inquiry and a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) review, which considered these issues with fresh eyes.

In response, the government drafted Maeves law, which underwent a series of reviews and public consultations, and gained the support of 60 leading Australian experts.

One challenge in gauging public support is to measure true community sentiment, rather than inviting submissions that merely serve as a forum for people with existing strongly held views either for or against mitochondrial donation.

To address this challenge, researchers convened a citizens jury in 2017, and the NHMRC held a citizens panel in 2019 to evaluate attitudes to mitochondrial donation. Both offered qualified support for allowing the technology.

The Senate will likely revisit amendments that were defeated in the House of Representatives in December. These include a proposal only to allow the technique in which the mothers DNA is implanted into the donor egg before fertilisation with the fathers sperm.

This suggestion is a response to fears that pronuclear transfer would lead to increased rates of embryo destruction.

But these early fertilised eggs also called zygotes do not meet the legal or biological definition of an embryo, and most embryologists do not regard this technique as leading to more loss of embryos than other assisted reproductive technologies. Whats more, banning this approach could greatly compromise the development of mitochondrial donation in Australia.

Maeves law will still require researchers to account to NHMRC for eggs and embryos used in their research, to seek ways to minimise the numbers used, and to report to Parliament on an annual basis.

Read more: Disputes over when life begins may block cutting-edge reproductive technologies like mitochondrial replacement therapies

While we need to respect differing attitudes to IVF and embryo research, we believe most experts and members of the public recognise the importance of giving couples who are at risk of mitochondrial disease the best chance of having a healthy child.

Maeves law has been carefully written to ensure a cautious introduction and evaluation of mitochondrial donation technology. The technology will be in a clinical trial setting for at least ten years, during which time the health of babies born using these techniques will be carefully monitored.

The science supports it. The community support it. People who are affected by mitochondrial disease have long supported it. We call on Senators to support it.

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'Maeve's law' would let IVF parents access technology to prevent mitochondrial disease. Here's what the Senate is debating - The Conversation AU

TORONTO, Feb. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ARHT Media Inc. (ARHT or the Company) (TSXV:ART) (OTCQB: ARHTF), the global leader in the development, production and distribution of high-quality, low latency hologram and digital content, is pleased to announce that they will be holding a demo event in Tokyo, Japan on February 16 & 17, 2022.

Anyone who is interested in attending to experience ARHTs HoloPresence technology first-hand is invited to email ARHT Media to book an appointment at japan@arhtmedia.com

ARHT will showcase its event and conference HoloPresence Display and Karine Koh, Managing Director of ARHTs Asia operations will beam-in from Singapore to meet with visitors and demonstrate ARHTs live and interactive holographic telepresence capabilities. The demo will be held at the Japan International Dispute Resolution Center (JIDRC). As space is limited interested parties are encouraged to email about their interest as soon as possible.

We continue to see growing interest in our products and services from the Japanese market, and now that we have developed locally trained technical partners it is time for ARHT to introduce HoloPresence technology to a broader audience, stated Larry OReilly CEO of ARHT Media. I encourage anyone with a need to access expertise in Japan, without the need for travel, to register for a demonstration and experience the power of live HoloPresence.

The demo event will be followed up by an activation on February 18, 2022, where ARHT will beam President and CEO of Mediate.com and Arbitrate.com, Colin Rule from San Francisco to Tokyo to give his keynote address at the Japan Association for Online Dispute Resolutions (JODR) inaugural Symposium. The symposium along with the demo is being held at a venue sponsored by Rikkyo Institute for Business Law Studies. The JODR is an organization seeking to increase awareness of Online Dispute Resolution services that are available in Japan.

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Were very excited to be able to use ARHTs hologram technology. Colin would have had to fly a great distance or appear via video without the help of ARHT. As a hologram, it will feel as though Colin will actually be here and the experience will be so much better for our attendees than seeing him through his webcam, stated Mayu Watanabe, founding board member of the JODR and the Specially Appointed Associate Professor of Rikkyo University.

About ARHT MediaARHT Medias patented HoloPresence technology is a complete end-to-end solution that creates a sense of presence for audiences as though the holographic presenter was actually live in the room. With no noticeable latency, ARHT Media makes two-way live communication with a 3D holographic presenter anywhere in the world possible. We can also playback pre-recorded content and 3D animations on our HoloPresence displays to deliver rich holographic experiences. Add to this our capability to stream the same content online on our premium Virtual Global Stage.

Connect with ARHT MediaTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/ARHTmediaFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/ARHTmediaincLinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/arht-media-inc-For more information, please visit http://www.arhtmedia.com or contact the investor relations group at info@arhtmedia.com.

ARHT Media trades under the symbol ART on the Toronto Venture Stock Exchange and under the symbol ARHTF on the OTCQB Venture Market.

Press ContactSalman AminARHT Mediasamin@arhtmedia.com

Investor ContactPhil CarlsonKCSA Strategic Communications212-896-1233ARHT@kcsa.com

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, disclosure related to the Companys sales funnel; the Companys technology; the potential uses for the Companys technology; the future planned events using the Companys technology; the future success of the Company; the ability of the Company to monetize the ARHT Media technology; the development of the Companys technology; and interest from parties in ARHTs products. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic and competitive uncertainties; regulatory risks; risks inherent in technology operations; and other risks of the technology industry. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

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ARHT Media To Hold Hologram Technology Demonstration In Japan On Feb 16 & 17, 2022 - Followed By Live Beam-In Of Keynote Speaker Colin Rule To The...

SAN ANTONIO, Feb. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rackspace Technology (NASDAQ: RXT), a leading end-to-end, multicloud technology solutions company, today announced its collaboration with VoltaGrid to deploy a secure, serverless cloud-native solution that leverages IoT, Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in AWS for its software-controlled and managed mobile electric microgrids.

Founded in 2020, VoltaGrid is based in North America and deploys mobile microgrids to provide power in remote locations. The company is serving energy companies that need electricity to power the hydraulic fracturing processes used to extract oil and gas. VoltaGrid also provides energy-generation services to data centers, industrial facilities, and medical centers, and has the capability to add power to a city grid.

VoltaGrids microgrid solution consists of a natural gas fired reciprocating engine that sits on a 52-foot trailer weighing over 100,000 pounds. Ten trailers working together can generate an astonishing 26 megawatts of electricity at 13,500 volts.

VoltaGrid is committed to transforming the world through its best-in-class, clean, affordable, intelligent energy technologies and enabling their partners to focus on their core competencies while offering a practical avenue to improve their ESG performance.

The Solution

Rackspace Technology leveraged an agile workflow to deploy a secure, serverless cloud native solution in AWS for VoltaGrids software-controlled, cloud-native solution that leverages IoT, ML and AI for its managed mobile electric microgrids to optimize operations for VoltaGrid customers.

As part of the solution, an edge device, HiveCell, was fitted to each VoltaGrid managed mobile electric microgrids trailer which allowed software to be deployed at the edge. The IoT technology on the mobile trailers captures data and sends it to the cloud. The scalable, seamless solution was built to collect data that quantifies power usage and emissions output from the mobile trailers in real-time.

In addition, VoltaGrid worked with Onica by Rackspace Technology to design and deploy an end-to-end cloud native solution that incorporated an edge device by leveraging ML and AI, to build a customer-facing portal. The VoltaGrid customer-facing portal, determines how data is ingested, stored, and refined and can monitor, measure and report on each customers power consumption, fuel costs and emissions in real-time at remote locations.

The VoltaGrid project, including fitting the trailers with IoT technology, building the entire cloud infrastructure, and creating the application, was completed in less than a year, said Jeff DeVerter, Chief Technology Evangelist at Rackspace Technology. VoltaGrid was able to launch its service and enhance its product offering quicker than had been initially predicted, allowing VoltaGrid to sell mobile power services to customers more quickly.

VoltaGrid had to build the mobile electric microgrids solution fast and by working with Rackspace Technology we were able to quickly and easily access the expertise that was needed when we needed it, said, John Chavner, Director, Technology and Cloud Development, VoltaGrid. Rackspace Technology understood our entire AWS ecosystem from a business standpoint, and they helped us get off the ground and I'm very thankful for that.

To learn more about the VoltaGrids Rackspace Technology solution click here.

About Rackspace Technology

Rackspace Technology is a leading end-to-end multicloud technology services company. We can design, build, and operate our customers cloud environments across all major technology platforms, irrespective of technology stack or deployment model. We partner with our customers at every stage of their cloud journey, enabling them to modernize applications, build new products and adopt innovative technologies.

Media ContactNatalie SilvaRackspace Technology Corporate Communicationspublicrelations@rackspace.com

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Rackspace Technology Works with VoltaGrid to Generate Cost - GlobeNewswire

A quick assumption would be that the utilization of braille has decreased in recent years, either due to advancements in technology or the rise of the audiobook industry. However, braille has since evolved from solely embossed paper to its incorporation in accessible technology.

Evolved from its original use as a means of low-light wartime communication, braille has been used as a tactile reading and writing system for over a century for those who are visually impaired. It is a system of code that allows for reading and writing without the use of sight, consisting of embossed braille cells each resembling a two by three grid that represent individual letters, numbers and symbols. So, how has braille survived in the era of screen readers and smart devices?

According to the National Science Teaching Association, visual impairments affect each member of the disabled community uniquely. Someone who is blind or has low vision might use braille as a means of reading and writing, in addition to using smart devices that can read aloud to them.

The National Science Teaching Association maintains that every person is unique in their personal accessibility. For example, someone who has a visual impairment and impaired mobility might not have the ability to detect braille cells through their fingers and will not find braille accessible. On the other hand, someone who has both visual and hearing impairments might find braille to be their preferred mode of reading and writing as they are not able to hear screen readers or electronic personal assistants.

Karen Arcos, a UCI alumna who received accommodations from the Disability Services Center (DSC), mentioned having used braille daily to complete her Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience with an emphasis in Chicano/Latino Studies as someone who is totally blind. Arcos said she used braille in all aspects of her education at UCI, including meeting presentations, collecting and analyzing data, daily emails and drafting her dissertation.

Braille on paper is especially useful when creating or interpreting tactile charts, tables and graphs. Reading braille digitally comes in handy for pleasure, like texting and when revising papers. I also enjoy writing braille, especially when thinking deeply or editing text, Arcos said.

Personal preferences for the use of assistive technology ultimately complement braille readers individual accessibility. In the end, each person must decide for themselves which tools increase their personal access.

DSC Assistive Technology Manager Somphone Eno explained that there are many factors that determine someones preference to consume braille in a physical or digital mode.

One page of text can turn into three pages of braille. You can have volumes and volumes of braille paper that just represents one book, for example. Some people might prefer to have the hard copy and some people might like the refreshable braille from some applications. Or in some cases, [refreshable braille displays] could be devices that are smaller and make information more portable, Eno said.

Its possible to say that the preference of braille in hard copy over screen readers is similar to that of physical print books over audiobooks or e-books. There is a specific occasion for each.

Among the recent advancements to increase accessibility, refreshable braille displays have become more accessible since their invention in the 1980s.

According to the American Foundation for the Blind, Braille displays provide access to information on a computer screen by electronically raising and lowering different combinations of pins in braille cells [where] it changes continuously as the user moves the cursor around on the screen.

A lot of people may be using their computer with a screen reader and theyre able to function everything fine, but they may prefer also having a braille display. Even though its [more advanced] technology, it is still braille, Eno said.

Braille, both on paper and on refreshable displays, retains its importance because audiobooks and screen readers were created to expand the accessibility of those who are low vision or blind not to replace the reliable means of tactile communication that braille has proven itself to be.

Eno said that braille remains the clearest depiction of text available for those who are low vision or blind, stating that, When youre listening to information, you dont really know the intricacies of the information, you just know the content.

While listening to a piece of text read aloud, some aspects of the text may be lost. For example, the tone of sentences is expressed grammatically with punctuation, such as an exclamation point or question mark. Electronic personal assistants, like Siri or Alexa, try their best to mimic human intonations; however, precise meaning is lost in solely auditory communication.

Braille gives blind individuals a way of knowing aspects like spelling and spatially orienting while writing. As well as reviewing and creating details that are harder to maintain through hearing, like computer code, Arcos said.

Additionally, braille allows for the reader to see the words spelled out before them, understand the punctuation present in the passage and perhaps be a childs first introduction to written grammar.

Arcos said that increasing braille literacy among those who are low vision or blind is important.

The over 70% unemployment rate among the blind in the U.S. is already too high, in my opinion; learning and being comfortable with braille is a key first step to lowering this trend, Arcos said.

Advancements in accessible technology have led braille to be fully incorporated into the digital age, as indispensable to accessible consumption like screen readers and electronic personal assistants.

Shakira Noriega is a STEM Contributing Writer for the winter 2022 quarter. She can be reached at sanorieg@uci.edu.

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Braille's Place in the Age of Technology - New University

Technology drives biological innovation. The continuous innovation of new technology over the past century has led to our continuously improved understanding of biological systems. In the future, research labs will continue to adopt new technologies that make it possible to perform previously impossible experiments: new instruments will make new experiments routine. Since biological systems are comprised of spatially organized cells, each making use of a particular combination of the genes available in its genomic repertoire, this will include technologies that can perform highly multiplexed biomarker analysis across whole tissues with single-cell resolution, giving us direct insight into biology.

Right now, it is common to measure just a few biomarkers at a time across biological tissues (e.g., immuno-fluorescence staining of a slice of brain tissue for a single protein), but most techniques that capture this spatial data do not have high enough bandwidth to capture more than just a few biomarkers such as RNAs or proteins. Yet, within the genome there are tens of thousands of unique genes. Measuring just one gene doesnt provide a clear indication of whats happening and distinguish the variety of cells present. On the other hand, experiments that perform highly multiplexed measurements tend to lose spatial context in doing so.

This deficiency can make it difficult to understand the biological complexities. Fortunately, an up-and-coming field called spatial biology promises to bridge the gap. Researchers in this field today are beginning to use technologies that simultaneously capture the arrangement of many proteins, RNA transcripts, or other biomolecules with single-cell resolution. The data can be used to spatially profile all the cells in a tissue, forming a cell atlas that can reveal novel biological mechanisms and act as a reference map for future work. While technologies today are not yet able to identify every molecule within a biological tissue, future advancements will continue to raise the ceiling of what is possible through spatial biology experiments.

With so much potential, single-cell spatial biology technologies are poised to become an integral aspect of life sciences labs in the future. By producing big, high-quality data, these technologies will provide scientists of the future with a new and more informed lens through which to interpret their research.

Lets consider two ways to approach understanding a complex biological system. Taking a macroscopic biological system as an analog, we could work towards understanding an ecosystem like the rainforest from the bottom up, one plant species at a time, carefully investigating how each plant grows and interacts with the surrounding environment. On the other hand, we could work from the top down by looking at the ecosystem as a whole and then honing into how the ecosystem is constructed from the constituent plant species. In the first approach, although you have thorough understanding of individual components of the system, it is difficult to piece together their complex interactions. In the second, its difficult to understand how each plant species then contributes to the overall ecosystem. Neither approach directly provides the full picture; instead, simultaneously capturing enough information about all organisms in the ecosystem to understand the function of each may yield more direct understanding.

Biological tissue functions like an ecosystem, with distinct cell types intricately interacting to form the whole. Therefore, to fully understand biological tissue, a comprehensive view using spatial biology to profile cells captures detailed molecular data about each individual cell and simultaneously captures information about every cell in the tissue. Cell types can vary across a staggering number of parameters. As with the jungle, scientists would benefit from analyzing many parameters simultaneously to not only identify the cell types but also gain a sense of how individual cells physiology is affected by their surroundings. This kind of data can be obtained through a technique called multiplexing, which allows scientists to capture information about many biological targets or parameters in a single experiment.

Many current spatial technologies incorporate multiplexing strategies, but those designed to detect RNA expression are leading the field by pushing the upper limit of how many unique RNA species can be detected at once. Right now, only the most advanced massively multiplexed techniques can capture hundreds of millions of data points for tens of thousands of biomolecules in a single experiment through a combination of molecular barcoding and combinatorial labeling. In the lab of the future, however, this level of multiplexing will become typical, allowing scientists to take a snapshot of a biological system and use that information to look for patterns, trends and markers to better identify molecular factors that are hallmarks of health and decline.

When it comes to biological systems, the localization and behavior of specific gene transcripts and proteins in individual cell types provides direct insight into how the whole cell and whole organism is functioning. Thats why new techniques to resolve details and reliably detect these molecules of interest are constantly being invented and improved across the world. In the coming years, advances in optics and imaging will give rise to a new generation of technologies that will provide a direct window into cell biology and the dynamics of larger biological systems.

While imaging at single-cell and subcellular resolution is not uncommon in todays laboratory, highly sensitive imaging technologies that can capture massively multiplexed data at single-cell resolution are extremely rare. One current technology that meets these criteria is MERFISH (Multiplexed Error-Resistant Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization), a quantitative technique that can spatially detect hundreds of millions of individual RNA transcripts from hundreds of genes across full tissues in a single instrument run including genes that are expressed at very low levels. While this technology is just beginning to find its way into todays genomics labs, the coming decades may see MERFISH technology becoming a leading tool for running single-cell spatial genomics studies. Additionally, single-cell technologies for detecting protein species and metabolic state will become more high-throughput and achieve higher resolution, rendering them capable of producing their own massively multiplexed data.

Once these technologies are available, labs of the future will likely be equipped with multiple instruments capable of capturing various types of highly multiplexed spatial data, offering a degree of clarity that will usher in a new era of life science research.

There is a growing appreciation for the fact that multidisciplinary research produces robust data. Scientists with diverse specialties, perspectives and approaches all bring something new and valuable to the table. In the lab of the future, instruments that produce massively multiplexed single-cell data will be accessible to researchers of numerous disciplines even those who dont have extensive experience running spatial experiments. Keeping pace with data generation, advancements in data science will make it easier to store and process the massive amount of information generated by these technologies. With ever increasing amounts of data, the role of the data scientist and computational biologist will become more important than ever. Their work towards generating novel ways to analyze massively multiplexed experiments and comparing results across multiple experiments and platforms analyzing RNA, protein and metabolic targets will be instrumental in moving the field forward.

Looking back, it took 13 years to first sequence the human genome; now, one group at Stanford has done the same in just over 5 hours. This was achieved through new technologies and new, advanced laboratory instrumentation. The field of spatial genomics is following the same trajectory. Considering spatial biologys growing role in research and medicine, technologies that can provide single-cell spatial information are poised to rise in prominence in life science labs in future decades.

To keep up, the lab of the future will adopt technologies that can capture more data at higher resolution in a way that is fast and accessible to researchers of varying skill sets. Data science will keep pace, enabling scientists to store and analyze big datasets with ease. By routinely being able to query high-resolution spatial information to shed light on unanswered questions and align results across disciplines, the lab of the future will transform the way scientists think about biology.

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Spatial Biology Technologies in the Lab of the Future - Technology Networks

Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw here on Sunday exuded confidence that India would become one of the world leaders in the manufacturing of mobile technology in the next five years, given the technological advancement going on in the county.

As part of the AatmaNirbhar Bharat programme, we have been clearly instructed to design and manufacture the technology required for 4G and 5G connectivity in India. It is a matter of satisfaction that 4G technology has been designed and developed in India. It is being tested. The progress, we have achieved with regards to 5G service, is beyond our expectation, Mr. Vaishnaw said while addressing a press conference here.

The 5G core and radio network will be rolled out shortly. It would usher in development led by technology, he said.

India has developed 4G network technology which is better than the ones available in other countries. Our engineers have worked hard on the technology of virtualisation which no other company in the world has mastered. During the past two years, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have developed the technology by virtualising the network, the bureaucrat-turned-politician said.

I am confident that India would become one of world leaders in mobile technology in five years, the Union Minister asserted.

A decade ago, who would have thought mobile and electronic systems would be manufactured in India. Now, India has already become the worlds second-largest mobile handset manufacturer. Worlds largest mobile manufacturing set-up is now available in India, he informed.

According to Mr. Vaishnaw, the market size of Indias electronic manufacturing has touched 6 lakh crore. The sector is generating 22 lakh jobs. With the speed at which electronic manufacturing is progressing, its market size would touch 25 lakh crore in next five years. It would be by then generating 80 lakh employments.

When asked as to why the public sector BSNL and MTNL were struggling to compete with their private counterparts, the Minister said, BSNL was a profitable company. The funds of BSNL were diverted during the UPA era. Within three years, BSNL became an entity that was unsustainable for its sustenance. There were no resources available to fund even the day-to-day activities.

For the first time, the BSNL had earned an operating profit last year. It happened because Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved a package of 90,000 crore for the revival of BSNL and MTNL. It enabled the two public sector companies to stabilise, he said.

This year, we are infusing 45,000 crore to take the public sector companies BSNL and MTNL to the next stage. The fund would be spent on 4G spectrums, network upgradation and the replacement of old equipment, the Minister informed.

Once BSNL gets stable in 4G technology in one or two years, it would go for 5G service, the IT minister said.

On Odisha having the largest villages uncovered by mobile services, Mr. Vaishnaw said PM Modi had approved the installation of mobile towers at 3,934 sites in December last and upon the installation of these towers, they would cover many more villages in their surroundings, he said.

In Odisha, there are 6,099 villages uncovered by mobile services the highest in the country. The next on the list is Madhya Pradesh, where there are 2,612 villages without mobile connectivity.

If any village is left uncovered in Odisha, the problem will be addressed immediately through a fresh survey, Mr. Vaishnaw assured.

Mobile connectivity is one of the major poll issues in elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions. In five gram panchayats of Deogarh district, candidates did not turn up for filing nominations protesting against lack of mobile connectivity. (EOM)

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India to become a world leader in mobile technology in next 5 years, says Vaishnaw - The Hindu