July 02, 2020

TTR03: Top 5 Stories Today, COVID-19, MIT robot gets to work disinfecting | Toadi: Autonomous lawn robot[GnG] | 6/28 - 7/04 2020 | Mike Gorday Guest

55 minutes

Technology news of the week for June 28th - July 4th 2020.

"Top 5 Stories Today"
1) "In effort to fight COVID-19, MIT robot gets to work disinfecting The Greater Boston Food Bank"
2)"Waze gets a big visual update with a focus on driver emotions"
3)"India bans TikTok, dozens of other Chinese apps"
4) "Study says road deaths could be cut in half if more safety tech were standard - From Consumer Reports."
5)"Can You Really “Zoom and Enhance” Security Footage?"
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I’m Nathan Mumm and today we’re talking about [Top 5 Stories Today] , [Gadgets and Gear], [Pick of the Day] and many more segments, Welcome to Patience - with Co-Host Mike Gorday. We also have our [Whiskey Review] at the end of the show, so make sure you listen all the way through to see what Whiskey Brand is our selected as [Pick of the Day].”
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"Top 5 Stories Today" - Segment One and Two

Article Highlights:
MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) has put one of its research projects to work providing disinfection services for The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), in an effort to slow the spread and still allow the non-profit to provide services to its patrons.
The system is flexible so that it can handle re-mapped routes, which is required because what areas of the warehouse need to be traversed can change daily as food comes in and food goes out, with stock stored on different shelves.

"Crowdsourced navigation platform Waze, which is owned by Google and yet remains a separate, but intertwined product relative to Google Maps, just got one of its biggest UI and design overhauls ever. The new look is much more colourful, and also foregrounds the ability for individual drivers to share their current emotions with Moods, a set of user-selectable icons (with an initial group of 30) that can reflect how you’re feeling as you’re driving.

The Indian government on Monday evening said it was banning 59 apps developed by Chinese firms over concerns that these apps were “engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, and security of state and public order” in what is the latest standoff between the two most populated nations in the world.

"Consumer Reports wants features like automatic braking to be ubiquitous. The publication just released a study estimating that US road deaths could be cut by 16,800 to 20,500, or roughly half of the 36,500 people lost in 2018, if certain safety features were standard on every car. Most of the lives saved, would come from a combination of automatic emergency braking, blind spot warning, lane departure warning and pedestrian detection.

"Two cops stand at a computer. Before them is a blurry security camera image. “Enhance,” barks the senior officer to the rookie, who presses a few buttons. Suddenly, the image transforms, revealing a critical piece of evidence. But is “enhancing” video footage realistic?"
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"Gadgets and Gear" - Segment Three
Mike so we have a interesting item on Kickstarter today: Toadi: Autonomous lawn robot powered by A.I.

Toadi is our favorite lawn robot. Equipped with a 4K camera and A.I. she navigates autonomously, while avoiding objects and animals, this is now second nature to her (she loves hedgehogs). Toadi is your lawn's new companion. They have been Alpha testing Toadi in 150 different yards in 2019 and added 500 more Beta versions in 2020. "If this Kickstarter campaign is successful, it will allow us to go from the Beta version to the first production version." -Wesley Lorrez

"Pick of the Day" - Segment
Mike and Nathan both agree on the best Whiskey for the day

**** And Pick of the Day Winner ***
Elijah Craig - Small Batch Kentu