This week’s list of top data news highlights covers July 13, 2024 to July 19, 2024, and includes articles on Amazon’s new AI shopping assistant and a digital twin of a concert hall in Austria.
1. Elevating the Entertainment Experience
DreamFlare AI, a San-Francisco based AI startup, has launched a new entertainment platform that allows the public to stream new types of entertainment. The platform offers two types of experiences: “Flips,” which are immersive stories featuring AI-generated images with movement and sound, and “Spins,” interactive short movies that allow users to make choices that change the storyline.
The police department in Pekin, Illinois has introduced a streamlined training program that uses virtual reality (VR) headsets to provide officers with realistic training scenarios, such as traffic stops or mental health calls. The VR technology allows officers to experience stress similar to real-world encounters in a virtual simulation, helping them develop de-escalation techniques and improve communication skills to serve the local community better.
Researchers from several Australian universities have developed a new AI algorithm that can detect drunk drivers by using in-vehicle cameras to continuously scan their faces and analyze for signs of intoxication while driving. The system analyzes facial cues like gaze direction and head position to assess a driver’s intoxication level as soon as they enter the vehicle. Unlike existing methods that rely on driving behavior, this AI can identify impaired drivers before the car starts moving, potentially preventing drunk driving accidents.
Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed an AI tool that detects rogue “killer” waves, which are strong enough to wreck a ship and threaten the safety of sailors. The researchers trained the model on data from floating sensors on buoys near coastlines, which included 14 million measurements of recorded wave heights. The tool accurately predicted where 75 percent of rogue waves would be one minute in advance.
5. Streamlining Online Shopping
Amazon has launched Rufus, an AI chatbot, to help U.S. customers make more informed decisions when shopping in the company’s online marketplace. Rufus uses generative AI to analyze product details and customer reviews and provide product recommendations, comparisons, and answers to questions.
The Abu Dhabi Police in the United Arab Emirates have introduced a humanoid robot to raise awareness about traffic rules and educate the public. The police will use the robot in traffic education programs to answer questions, give instructions, and lectures on traffic safety.
7. Predicting Chemotherapy Side Effects
Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have developed a new tool to predict individual risk levels for side effects from taxane chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. Taxane treatments, which scientists often use to treat cancer, can have side effects including nerve damage in some patients. The researchers sequenced patients’ genes to identify specific genetic characteristics linked to these side effects, allowing them to estimate the likelihood of nerve damage based on a patient’s genetics.
Tinder, a dating app, has launched a new tool that uses AI to help users choose the best profile pictures to make a good first impression and increase their chances of finding matches. After receiving access to the user’s photo gallery, the tool scans all their images and recommends the best ones to enhance their dating profile.
Germany-based multinational technology company Siemens has created a digital twin of the Grand Festival Hall in Salzburg, Austria. The digital replica of this concert hall allows people anywhere to virtually tour the hall, observe the architecture, and experience the hall’s acoustics. The digital twin will also allow concert organizers to precisely simulate the building’s acoustics and structure, thus helping plan modifications like adding panels or rearranging the orchestra.
The Baltimore Development Corporation, the city’s non-profit agency promoting economic development, has launched a new data dashboard that aggregates key data on the local economy from various sources. The dashboard covers six key economic areas: jobs, workforce, real estate, small businesses, startups, and consumer spending. The tool automatically updates every quarter and will assist economic planners, real estate investors, and entrepreneurs in making data-informed decisions factoring in the city’s economic conditions.
Image credit: Osama Saeed
