The New York Times reports that brain computer interfaces are inching closer to mainstream.

USB Co-inventor Reinventing the PC (by IntelFreePress)

Rise of Data Scientists

Big data is a buzzword. I’m glad it exists because it makes people more interested in what we do. There’s an enormous amount of value to be had out of data. Ten years ago those decisions were made on gut feel and intuition and now we’ve had fabulous case studies both in business — I think of Tesco and the advent of the loyalty card as probably the most prominent business case study. There’s also the case study of the Oakland A’s and “Moneyball,” and another on predicting election outcomes. I think all of this comes to demonstrate why basing decisions on data leads to much better decisions than just relying on gut instinct.

— Kaggle founder and CEO Anthony Goldbloom

Data is playing a bigger role in business decisions, and with the tremendous rise in amounts of data being collected today there is a growing need for data scientists to help companies make sense of it all, according to Anthony Goldbloom, founder and CEO of Kaggle, a company that organizes competitions that rank top data scientists from around the world and then helps them connect with companies which want to put their skills to work.

Full story: A Marketplace for Data Scientists

Silicon Valley is popping!

— Bill Mark, vice president of information and computer science at SRI International, one of the largest contract research firms in the world.

The state of innovation in Silicon Valley and across the technology industry is popping, according to Bill Mark, vice president of information and computer science at SRI International. Mark and SRI President and CEO Curt Carlson share what they see as booming areas of innovation, including education, healthcare, and perceptual and ubiquitous computing.

Historian Ernest Freeberg said, “[Thomas] Edison invented a new style of invention, a coordinated program of scientific research and product development” that paved the way for “a world where we assume invention is not just something that comes along when someone has a great idea, but this is a force that can be shaped and controlled.” Freeberg is the author of “The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America.”

If nascent computer sensory systems catch up with more evolved computer processors, they way people interact and think about their laptops, tablets and other devices might take a leap ahead.

Achin Bhowmik, director on Intel’s Perceptual Computing Group, believes that the future of personal computers depends on their vastly improved abilities to see, hear and interact with people more naturally than the archaic keyboard and mouse.

“The laptop is still primitive with only one eye, one ear and they are now just getting touch,” he said. “By giving computing devices 3-D vision systems like human beings, we can bring natural interaction to PCs and open up a whole new dimension not just for PCs, but for smartphones, tablets, media boxes, vending machines, cars and almost anything that connects to the Internet.”

Touchscreen Smart Jukebox (by IntelFreePress)

Just as the Internet disrupted the record industry, mobile and touch technology are now upending the jukebox business. One of the newest breeds is the Virtuo, designed by New York-based TouchTunes, that mounts on a wall like a giant touchscreen. The Linux-based operating system runs on an Intel Core processor, and the Virtuo has built-in 4G wireless Internet technology that allows it to receive updates every day.

Rather than just playing songs from a selection of a few hundred titles, these multi-functional, computer-powered jukeboxes can offer song catalogs that numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Playing songs is just one of many functions. The machines also act as karaoke devices and photo booths, and display interactive digital advertising that brings new experiences to patrons and revenue streams to venues and jukebox vendors. 

Local dive bars and social hangouts across North America are getting a technology makeover as a wave of Internet and smartphone-connected, touchscreen-controlled digital jukeboxes supplant the iconic 45 rpm record-spinning and more recent CD-based models.

Field research conducted by Intel Free Press revealed that the popularity of these new jukeboxes may depend less upon generational and more upon technological preferences. The experience of analog music may always have a place in people’s hearts, but the spread of always-connected mobile technologies are allowing those experiences to be augmented through Internet control and sharing capabilities.

The high-tech jukeboxes are installed at two established San Francisco bars in North Beach neighborhood, home of the Beat Generation. The TouchTunes device stirred mixed reactions from happy hour patrons and bartenders. A 60-year-old bartender in Gino and Carlo’s said it was popular and simple. “I can show you in three easy steps how to use it,” he said. However, his younger coworker claiming not to be a smartphone guy called it lame, echoing a long-time patron who asked, “Why come into a bar and play that thing with your phone when you can spend your time talking with people?” Another bartender down the street at Kennedy’s said he’d like to put in a separate music system because the digital jukebox wasn’t used enough and didn’t allow him free play or enough control.

The full story: Jukebox Reinvented for the Digital Age