Techstination

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Envision unveils AI enabled smart glasses for the blind and visually impaired. Co-founder and Chief Engineer Karthik Kannan in Techstination interview.

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  With more and more insurers supporting it…telemedicine or telehealth has been growing rapidly…allowing doctors and other health care professionals to connect with patients over smartphones and tablets.  And the Coronavirus will only accelerate the adoption.  Some companies have been pushing the envelope.  Electronic Care Giver has created a virtual assistant named Addison.  CEO Tony Dohrmann says the vision is to create a smart health home…

“We’re using a mixed reality engine to project a user interface…that’s an actual, virtual 3D caregiver that you need to be able to project into different touchscreens throughout the house.”

They are making use of Intel Realsense cameras and are now showing how the system can work on a wider range of devices including Facebook’s Portal and a Microsoft Surface Pro.  There’s more info at www.addison.care.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

Techstination Week is a compilation of this week's Techstination reports with tech journalist and host Fred Fishkin.

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  When it comes to producing clean, green energy…it is hard to get cleaner or greener than being able to generate electricity from thin air.  But that is exactly what scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are doing with a device called Air-Gen.  They revealed it recently in the journal Nature…and micro biologist co-author Derek Lovley tells us…

“We have a new form of sustainable electricity production.  It has some advantages over existing technology.  We don’t need sunlight, we don’t need wind.  This device can produce electricity 24 7.  It’s now an engineering question of can this actually be engineered in a way that it’s been theoretically calculated, to produce large quantities of electricity.”

You’ll want to hear the full interview on our Web site.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  Rizwan Virk is the founder of PlayLabs at MIT….has developed a list of video games that includes Tap Fish…and will get you lost for hours reading and then pondering his book…The Simulation Hypothesis..

“The book is about the idea that we all live inside a computer generated simulation like a very sophisticated video game.  Kind of like The Matrix.  And there’s a lot of different aspects of that idea.  You know when The Matrix came out twenty years ago it was considered pretty much science fiction but a lot of technologists and philosophers and academics, scientists are starting to look at this idea more seriously.”

Virk presents the evidence…even ties the concept to many religions.  The Simulation Hypothesis by Rizwan Virk.  And check out our full interview.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  Thinker Tinker is a company that has turned a plush toy into an interactive smart companion for little ones.  Octobo works with a tablet…and uses books and tokens that bring the toy to life.  CEO Yuting Su…

“He is a very cuddly blue octopus but also a powerful hardware gadget himself.  There are sensors throughout his body that can sense kids’ different interactions.  And the sensors are connected to a tablet.”

With an app that gives Octobo his expressions and sounds. The starter pack includes Octobo’s Underwater Adventure book and sells for about 150 dollars….and right now there is only a single add on book available…Great Letter Search.  Hopefully there will be more soon to make the investment worthwhile.  Since your tablet goes inside….parents will likely want to stay nearby.  Find more at www.thinker-tinker.com.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  Sleep trackers have been around for years but wearing a watch or fitness tracker isn’t always so comfortable at night.  And can present issues keeping devices charged.  But Withings Sleep is an alternative solution that I’ve found works very well…breaking down sleep modes, your heart rate while sleeping and monitoring breathing disturbances.  Product manager Varoun Sanath says it is a simple mat that goes under the mattress and connects to WiFi..

“And with a one time set up you’re able to track easily your sleep.  Basically you just have to install it, then go to bed and when you get out of the bed you get, automatically, a complete sleep report.”

The Withings Health Mate app works with other digital health devices as well like the smart BPM Connect blood pressure cuff.  Find more at www.withings.com.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

VTech's coming social influencer Kidizoom Creator Cam: Tiffany Lavery chats about that and more in Techstination interview.