Baidu's Duer:Another addition to the family of Digital Assistants

Baidu's Duer:Another addition to the family of Digital Assistants.

By now, you all must be familiar with the names of Siri, Google now and Cortana. Duer is another addition to the family of Digital assistants, only difference being, like Facebook M it is also AI powered.

Duer's Logo

A Beijing-based company Baidu that develops Chinese version of Google has recently launched its own personal assistant named “Duer”. This Tuesday it was incorporated into its latest mobile search app which is installed in millions of mobiles in China .Baidu is the only company, outside the premises of US which has challenged companies like Apple and Google.

While spreading some light on this newly created artificial AI powered digital assistant, Robin Li, President and chief executive officer of Baidu announced that:

” Duer is based on the company's existing ecosystem that already covers many sectors, such as dining, film, tourism, education, and healthcare”  

Just like Cortana and Siri, Duer has its own perks. It processes voice requests to connect users with services like food delivery, pet grooming and ticket sales. It is your constant source of information and a friendly companion .It orders your food for you, and while you are searching for a good restaurant to take your family out on a dinner it displays all the relevant information about that restaurant, its location, cuisines, bookings, prices etc. Instead of waiting in long lines to buy movie tickets you can ask Duer to do your job .It will soon be integrated into Baidu’s other apps including Maps and Nuomi, a group buying service.

   Duer is expected to soon be integrated into Baidu maps and Nuomi
Photo:SCMP pictures

In near future Duer will be able to control all your devices at home and connect them to healthcare and other customer care services. In addition to that it will expand to include ride-hailing, housekeeping, beauty, education and travel services.The service can be activated in your smartphones by simply saying “Hello Duer”.

Baidu boasts off the fact that their artificial intelligence is capable of image recognition more accurately than humans, and better than both Microsoft and Google’s technology.

At the company’s 10th annual Baidu world conference in Beijing Robin li Yanhong said:

“In the past, only the privileged few – those in very senior positions in companies or other organizations – had personal assistants. With Duer, every ordinary person can now have a powerful personal assistant who can provide valuable life services – for free.”

One of the driving forces behind this artificial intelligence is world renowned ex-Google Brain Andrew Ng, who joined the company back in 2014.

Baidu's Duer:Another addition to the family of Digital Assistants

08:23 artificial intelligence, Baidu, Digital assistant, Duer, Techology

New Trends in Technology - Latest, Hot Gadgets

From Samsung’s curved/bendable TVs to iPhone 6, Mother, Bluetooth Watches & PulseWallet, here are the rumored, updated, and new technologies of the year.

Curved TVs 

A "bendable" TV that bends its edges out at the touch of a button. If you believe LG, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony, curved TVs aren’t just pleasing to the eye, they are what the eye craves. The crux of the “more immersive” argument has to do with the shape and structure of the human eyeball. 

Though TVs have evolved to employ a flat screen, our eye is round. That means our field of vision isn’t limited to what is directly in front of you but also takes in the action happening at our sides. Curved TVs purport to replicate this real-world experience by wrapping the image around us and making us feel more enveloped by what’s on the screen.

iPhone 6 - The next generation of the iPhone

iPhone 6, probably the most hot phone being discussed these days & the entire world drooling over it has outshone other smartphones in major ways. Both iPhone 6 models have received generally positive reviews. Re/code called it "the best smartphone you can buy". TechRadar praised the iPhone 6's "brilliant" design, improved battery life over the 5S, iOS 8 for being "smarter and more intuitive than ever", along with the quality of its camera. The Verge considered the iPhone 6 to be "simply and cleanly designed" in comparison to the 5S, noting that the phone still felt usable despite its larger size. Improvements such as performance, battery life, VoLTE support, and other tweaks were also noted. In conclusion, the iPhone 6 was considered "good, even great, but there’s little about it that’s truly ambitious or truly moving the needle. It’s just a refinement of a lot of existing ideas into a much more pleasant package. 

Glass allows us to use technology without worrying about it. This is especially true for active people who use apps like Strava Run/Cycle, GolfSight, and Google Maps. Because Glass is designed for people on the move, we’re able to live lighter while exploring the world at the same time. So instead of staring at your smartphone screen, you can stare at your environment. 

We don’t have to worry about connecting to a network or opening an app when we’re wearing Google Glass — it’s always on. Whether you want to take a picture, share your status on social media, or find your way with a compass; Google Glass is always awaiting your command. And because you’re always connected to the web, you’ll never miss a moment again. 

It also offers a front-facing camera, Android 4.0 handheld controller, WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0. 

A large Gorilla Glass display shows up to four weeks of training data, and syncs via a Bluetooth Smart device to the Polar Flow app and online service.

Google Glass 

Google Glass is one of the most innovative pieces of technology ever created. Since it first launched in 2013, the promise of living an active lifestyle with a pair of smart-glasses strapped to our heads has been an intriguing notion for many tech enthusiasts around the world. And with over 800,000 people currently owning a pair and sales forecasted to surpass 20 million by the year 2018, you’re probably considering making a purchase.

A lot of gadgets claim to be hands-free but Google Glass is the only device that eliminates the need to pull out our smartphone or fumble around with a secondary device (like a smartwatch). Glass does most of the things our smartphones can do and is completely controlled by our voice commands. Sending text messages, drafting emails, searching the web, snapping pictures; Glass does it all.

Epson Moverio Smart Glasses - A New Way of Seeing The World 

The next-generation Moverio BT-200 smart glasses are designed to change how you experience the world around you. With new and improved features and a more compact size, these innovative smart-glasses are setting the new standard in Augmented Reality. 

Moverio BT-200 smart-glasses platform, a binocular LCD-projection lens system with compass, gyro and accelerator built in.  

Epson announced some interesting partners for this technology, including an array of first-person-shooter games and an application that helps paramedics see patients' veins.

Pebble Steel Bluetooth Watch 

It has three stainless-steel versions of the classic plastic Pebble. Pebble has also announced an app store, giving developers a centralized location to sell apps that follow the company's updated APIs. 

Some of its amazing features are:

• Notifications at a glance (See who's calling, texting, or emailing without having to find your phone.)
• Up to 7 days of battery life (Charge it once and forget about it.)
• Water Resistant up to 50 meters (Run in the rain or jump in the pool. Pebble can take it!)
• Fitness Tracking (Run, walk, bike, swim, or sleep... you can track it all with Pebble.)
• Readable in Daylight (You should be able to read the time and your messages whenever you want.)
• Apps that make it yours (The Pebble app store has thousands of watch-faces and apps compatible with iOS and Android for you to choose from.)
• Add Colors to your Life (Actually, it adds color to your wrist.) 

WRISTBANDS

LG Lifeband Touch Wristband

Designed to slip on like a bangle, the LG Life-band can notify you about incoming calls. Paired with LG's Earphone Heart Rate Monitor, the Life-band can also track your heart rate while you listen to music. It syncs with apps including Polar, Wahoo Fitness, RunKeeper and MyFitnessPal.

Polar V800 Wristband

An "advanced multi-sport training computer." The V800 does round-the-clock activity tracking, including GPS and (optionally) heart rate monitoring, which it tracks even while its user is swimming.

Garmin Vivofit Wristband

The Vivofit with learn your activity patterns and set new goals for you that increase as you progress. 

There are two models: One with a heart monitor and one without. Both will sync with Garmin's online fitness community, Garmin Connect.

MOTHER 

Mother is a wireless gadget that receives data form sensors called 'Motion Cookies'. You can place it on drawers, coffee machines, keys, pill bottles, doors and even toothbrushes to track activity in your home.

DEBIT, CREDIT, OR HAND-VEIN PAYMENT SYSTEM?

Imagine if you could pay for something with a mere wave of your hand? The "PulseWallet" consists of sensors that take a photo of the unique pattern of veins in the palm of your hand, and then deduct payment from a credit card on file. 

New Trends in Technology - Latest, Hot Gadgets

16:49 Android, Apple, Communication, Google, iPhone, mobile apps, Samsung, selfie, Techology

Dynamic Memory and "new" and "delete" Operators

As you may remember from your lesson on arrays, we initially declared the size of the array in our code. However, what if, at run time, the user only wanted to enter five elements in the ten element array we declared? That would be a waste of space. Conversely, if our array is smaller than what the user wants, that would pose another problem. To overcome this, we use the concept of dynamic memory, where the array size is entered by the user during the running of the application.

Dynamic Memory

•          Until now, we have only had as much memory as we have requested in declarations of variables, arrays etc

•          The size of all of them was fixed BEFORE the execution of the program.

•          What if we need a variable amount of memory

•          That can only be determined DURING the program execution (runtime).

•          For example, in case that we need user input to determine the necessary amount of space?

The answer is dynamic memory

We can accomplish this using the operators new and delete

Operators "new" and "new[]"

•          new: to request dynamic memory

•          new is followed by a data type

•          and optionally the number of elements required within brackets [].

•          Returns a pointer to the beginning of the new block of assigned memory.

                pointer = new type // to assign memory to contain one single element of type

               or

               pointer = new type [elements]  // to assign a block (an array) of elements of type.

int * b;

b = new int[5];

•          The operating system will assign space for 5 elements of type int

•          And will return a pointer to its beginning

•          That has been assigned to b.

•          Therefore, now, b points to a valid block of memory with space for 5 int elements. 

Why use pointers as arrays?

•the size of an array must be a constant value

•Which limits its size to what we decide at the moment of designing the program before its execution

•Whereas the dynamic memory allocation allows assigning memory during the execution of the program

•using any variable, constant or combination of both

Dynamic Memory Implementation

•The dynamic memory is generally managed by the operating system

•Shared between several applications

•So there is a possibility that the memory exhausts.

•If so, the operating system cannot assign the memory that we request with the operator new

•A null pointer will be returned.

•For that reason it is recommended to always check to see if the returned pointer is null after a call to new. 

int * b;

   b = new int [5];

   if (b == NULL) {

       // error assigning memory. Take

     //measures.

   }; 

Operators "delete"

•          Once the dynamic memory is no longer needed it should be freed

•          So that it becomes available for future requests of dynamic memory.

•          The operator delete exists for this purpose

                delete pointer;

                or

               delete [] pointer;

•          The first expression should be used to delete memory allocated for a single element

•          The second one for memory allocated for multiple elements (arrays).

•          In most compilers both operators are equivalent

"new" and "delete"

Take a look at an example code to see the implementation of the operators:

Dynamic Memory and "new" and "delete" Operators

02:04 Arrays, Basics, C++, C++ Tutorial, Coding, Courses, Learn C++, Learn Programming, Pointers, Programming, Programming Languages, Software Development, Techology, Tutorials

Pointers and Strings: Part Four

Let us dive into part four of our lesson on pointers and strings. You can revise the previous three parts here, here and here.

Fundamentals of Characters and Strings

•          Character constant

–        Integer value represented as character in single quotes

–        'z' is integer value of z

•          122 in ASCII

•          String

–        Series of characters treated as single unit

–        Can include letters, digits, special characters  +, -, * ...

–        String literal (string constants)

•          Enclosed in double quotes, for example:

                                            "I like C++"

–        Array of characters, ends with null character '\0'

–        String is constant pointer

•          Pointer to string’s first character

–        Like arrays

•          String assignment

–        Character array

•          char color[] = "blue";

–        Creates 5 element char array color

–        last element is '\0'

–        Variable of type char *

•          char *colorPtr = "blue";

–        Creates pointer colorPtr to letter b in string “blue”

–        “blue” somewhere in memory

–        Alternative for character array

•          char color[] = { ‘b’, ‘l’, ‘u’, ‘e’, ‘\0’ };

•          Reading strings

–        Assign input to character array word[ 20 ]

                               cin >> word 

•          Reads characters until whitespace or EOF

•          String could exceed array size

                                            cin >> setw( 20 ) >> word;

•          Reads 19 characters (space reserved for '\0')

•          cin.getline

•          Read line of text

•          cin.getline( array, size, delimiter );

•          Copies input into specified array until either

•          One less than size is reached

•          delimiter character is input

•          Example

                             char sentence[ 80 ];

                             cin.getline( sentence, 80, '\n' );

String Manipulation Functions of String-handling Library

•          String handling library <cstring> provides functions to

–        Manipulate string data

–        Compare strings

–        Search strings for characters and other strings

–        Tokenize strings (separate strings into logical pieces)

•          Copying strings

–        char *strcpy( char *s1, const char *s2 )

•          Copies second argument into first argument

•          First argument must be large enough to store string and terminating null character

–        char *strncpy( char *s1, const char *s2,   size_t n )

•          Specifies number of characters to be copied from string into array

•          Does not necessarily copy terminating null character

•          Concatenating strings

–        char *strcat( char *s1, const char *s2 )

•          Appends second argument to first argument

•          First character of second argument replaces null character terminating first argument

•          Ensure first argument large enough to store concatenated result and null character

–        char *strncat( char *s1, const char *s2, size_t n )

•          Appends specified number of characters from second argument to first argument

•          Appends terminating null character to result

•          Comparing strings

–        Characters represented as numeric codes

•          Strings compared using numeric codes

–        Character codes / character sets

•          ASCII

•          “American Standard Code for Information Interchange”

•          EBCDIC

•          “Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code”

•          Comparing strings

–        int strcmp( const char *s1, const char *s2 )

•          Compares character by character

•          Returns

–        Zero if strings equal

–        Negative value if first string less than second string

–        Positive value if first string greater than second string

–        int strncmp( const char *s1,

                                                                 const char *s2, size_t n )

•          Compares up to specified number of characters

•          Stops comparing if reaches null character in one of arguments

•          Tokenizing

•          Breaking strings into tokens, separated by delimiting characters

•          Tokens usually logical units, such as words (separated by spaces)

•          "This is my string"  has 4 word tokens (separated by spaces)

•          char *strtok( char *s1, const char *s2 )

•          Multiple calls required

•          First call contains two arguments, string to be tokenized and string containing delimiting characters

•          Finds next delimiting character and replaces with null character

•          Subsequent calls continue tokenizing

•          Call with first argument NULL

•          Determining string lengths

•          size_t strlen( const char *s )

•          Returns number of characters in string

•          Terminating null character not included in length

Pointers and Strings: Part Four

14:14 Arrays, Arrays in C++, C++ Tutorial, Courses, Languages, Learn C++, Learn Programming, Pointer Arithmetic, Pointers, Pointers in C++, Programming, Programming Languages, Software Development, Techology