日航用 IBM Watson 虛擬助手為乘客提供携同嬰孩旅行相關資訊

圖片來源：日航網站

【科技特搜】日本 JAL 最近推出了一款利用 IBM Watson 開發的手機程式，方便計劃前往夏威夷的乘客可向程式內的虛擬助手「Makana-chan」查詢有闗携同嬰孩旅行的資訊。

資訊來源：日航網站

她失明了，卻用科技讓數億盲人「重見」天日

一位盲人女科學家，用科技創新的力量改寫數億盲人的命運，得以重新「看見」世界。

「Hi! Nick，你今天看上去很高興。」 IBM 研究員淺川智惠子 (Chieko Asakawa)「看著」同事的笑臉，第一次主動打起了招呼。

這項讓她「看見」Nick 的發明叫做 NavCog（認知助手）。你可能沒有想到，這項技術正是由智惠子，一位 14 歲開始失明的女性科學家所主導發明的。

失明後，科技為她開啓了另一扇門。

BYOD or CYOD: Which mobile trend is right for your organization?

(Note: This article is a repost from Mobile Business Insights)

These days, it would be surprising – and concerning – if mobility and the consumerization of IT were not part of any mobile enterprise’s strategic roadmap. After all, end users have become more demanding about which devices they use and where they log in from the network. They expect the same user experience that they get from the powerful personal mobile devices they are already accustomed to.

Though the first mobile trend that emerged to address this new world was bring-your-own-device (BYOD), many enterprises are understandably concerned about the security of sensitive corporate data in a BYOD model. Enterprises are increasingly considering implementing a choose-your-own-device (CYOD) program to address those very legitimate concerns.

Are in-store AI’s part of Hong Kong’s retail future?

Everyday AI At Work Blog Series

Digital natives (a.k.a. millennials) find on-line shopping a lot easier than going to the mall because, obviously, it’s simpler to locate things you want to buy through a web browser than it is to physically search the racks and shelves of a shop. That’s not to say shopping on-line has the same visceral satisfaction as you get from finding something you might like, holding it in your hand and trying it out but locating things is nonetheless a challenge.

That’s particularly evident if you happen to be doing a weekly grocery shop at a different supermarket than the one you normally frequent (and sometime even in your regular store if the manager has decided to move things around again). Each store has a different layout so your mental map of where things you want ought to be is of little use.

Business lessons from the Pokémon Go phenomenon

(This article is also published in Computerworld Hong Kong on August 1, 2016)

Image source: Internet

Hong Kong appears to be invaded by Pokémon Go players. We’ll no doubt be bumping into avid players all over the place. In case you’ve been entirely cut off from news this month, Pokémon Go is a mobile game app, in which players move around in the real world looking for digital creatures overlaid on the streets around them.

Less than two weeks after the initial release, Pokémon Go has become the most successful mobile game ever. It is also generating newspaper headlines about users and their experiences on a daily basis. The share price of Nintendo – which originated the Pokémon characters back in the ‘90s but is just a part owner of the app – was doubled. But it has fallen back as in reality, its profits from the game will be limited.

There is much more in this groundbreaking game. Such application and massive acceptance in augmented reality is expected to trigger a wave of adoption in other areas. Meanwhile, however, Pokémon Go’s massive adoption has been accompanied by reports of server overloads, players being locked out and rumors of security issues.

While details have not been disclosed, it seems pretty clear that such issues have delayed the game’s rollout, especially to Japan and other game-crazy Asian markets, slowing down revenue generation. Simply put, it appears that the operation team was unprepared for the success of Pokémon Go.

雲端應用 宜借鏡Pokémon GO

(原文於2016年7月28日在香港經濟日報刊登)

就算你不好「Pokemon Go」，身邊總會有人在玩。員工在休息時把玩手機其實無傷大雅，我們也很難杜絕「寵物小精靈」在辦公室的出現。但企業在考慮保安原則時，仍要兼顧安全與效率。企業在決定採用個別雲端應用時，原來可借鏡同類的「Pokemon Go」的一些成功元素。

How Can We Get The ‘Star Trek’ Factor Into Enterprise IT?

Image source: Internet

Anyone familiar with “Star Trek” knows that technology plays a central role in the science fiction franchise. On the Starship Enterprise, the onboard computer is almost a character in its own right, interacting naturally with the crew members through spoken language and thoroughly embedded in all activities like any other shipmate.

When the Romulans de-cloak off the starboard beam and prepare to attack, Mr. Spock asks the computer to divert more power to the forward shields and prepare a full spread of photon torpedoes in response. The computer does so instantly and effortlessly, casually responding, “All taken care of, Mr. Spock, is there anything else I can do for you today?”

‘Pokemon Go’ and Five Security Requirements for Using Cloud Apps

(Note: This article is a repost from Security Intelligence)

If you haven’t played the new “Pokemon Go” game yourself, someone close to you definitely has. The game has gone viral since its release, and it has people out in droves wandering around neighborhoods looking for Pikachu.

Five Lessons From ‘Pokemon Go’

In the workplace, cloud apps such as “Pokemon Go” are wildly popular — and have been for a while. We all want to play, but CISOs must consider some general security requirements to be both efficient and safe.

Here are five requirements from “Pokemon Go” that can be applied to adopting cloud apps in your organization.

Catchup: Bluemix + Gadget提醒你巴士幾時到站

等巴士和追巴士這兩個動作，對許多香港人來說是家常便飯。香港道路環境複雜，令大家難以預測巴士時間到站。有兩位中文大學的學生就看中這個需求，利用實時資訊，開發出一款 Catchup 流動應用程式，幫用家節省等待巴士的時間。

未來的辦公室將是以員工體驗為中心

如何打造一個合適的工作環境，讓員工有更好的體驗，激發更高的生產力，是IBM關注的議題。當流動辦公的概念不斷被提出的時候，IBM對「流動」的定義不僅僅是關於技術的，而是以「流動的人」為方向，以「流動技術」為實現基礎的全新的工作方式。

IBM正在經歷這樣一場工作環境的變革，從以設備為驅動，到以體驗為中心的轉變。也就是說一切以增強客戶，員工體驗為核心，以隨時隨地的訊息接入為目的，打造更靈活，更高效，更快速的工作環境佈署與管理的新模式。