IBM's Watson Now A Customer Service Agent, Coming To Smartphones Soon - Forbes

IBM’s question-answering Watson supercomputer is building quite the résumé. First it won a much-publicized showdown against the two greatest Jeopardy! champions of all time, then it went to medical school and emerged as a budding oncologist. Now Watson has a new job–as a customer-service agent with the mostest. The help desk is a bit of a step down from fighting cancer, but IBM is nothing if not pragmatic. U.S. organizations spend $112 billion on call center labor and software, yet half of the 270 billion customer-service calls go unresolved each year, presenting a fairly sizable opening for an enhanced cognitive computer. Let’s face it: Rare is the occasion when you a) reach a live person and b) they know what they’re talking about. Why not give silicon a chance?

Starting in the next few months, IBM will be rolling out with several key customers an “Ask Watson” feature that will greet and offer help through various channels:  Web chats, email, smartphone apps and SMS. Some customers will eventually equip the service with voice recognition from a partner such as Siri or Nuance. The guinea pigs include Australia’s ANZ Bank, Nielsen, Celcom, IHS, and Royal Bank of Canada.

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Asthmapolis Wants To Hack The Inhaler And Help 26 Million Americans Better Track And Manage Their Asthma | TechCrunch Unless you’re reading this while using an inhaler, this fact may surprise you: According to the CDC, 26 million Americans currently have the chronic respiratory disease we know as asthma. Not only that, but the CDC tells us that the disease costs the U.S. $3,300 per person annually, and medical expenses associated with asthma have increased to about $56 billion (thanks to hospitalizations, emergency room visits and missed work), while over 10 percent of insured Americans are unable to afford their prescription medicines. Asthmapolis launched in 2010 to help find a solution by leveraging the advances in sensor technology (and the reduced costs of producing said sensors) and mobile data monitoring to help people manage their asthma more effectively, in turn reducing the costs both for those suffering from asthma and for the U.S. healthcare system itself. And, today, the Wisconsin-based startup has announced that it has raised $5 million in Series A financing from The Social+Capital Partnership to build out a comprehensive solution and support system for those with the chronic respiratory disease. Asthmapolis is one of a new generation of digital health startups attempting to hack the old software, devices and care systems that continue to prevail in today’s healthcare landscape. We recently wrote about Intersect ENT, for example, which is hacking stents (yes, stents) to help doctors more effectively treat the 31 million-plus people suffering from sinusitis.

Asthmapolis Wants To Hack The Inhaler And Help 26 Million Americans Better Track And Manage Their Asthma | TechCrunch

Unless you’re reading this while using an inhaler, this fact may surprise you: According to the CDC, 26 million Americans currently have the chronic respiratory disease we know as asthma. Not only that, but the CDC tells us that the disease costs the U.S. $3,300 per person annually, and medical expenses associated with asthma have increased to about $56 billion (thanks to hospitalizations, emergency room visits and missed work), while over 10 percent of insured Americans are unable to afford their prescription medicines.

Asthmapolis launched in 2010 to help find a solution by leveraging the advances in sensor technology (and the reduced costs of producing said sensors) and mobile data monitoring to help people manage their asthma more effectively, in turn reducing the costs both for those suffering from asthma and for the U.S. healthcare system itself. And, today, the Wisconsin-based startup has announced that it has raised $5 million in Series A financing from The Social+Capital Partnership to build out a comprehensive solution and support system for those with the chronic respiratory disease.

Asthmapolis is one of a new generation of digital health startups attempting to hack the old software, devices and care systems that continue to prevail in today’s healthcare landscape. We recently wrote about Intersect ENT, for example, which is hacking stents (yes, stents) to help doctors more effectively treat the 31 million-plus people suffering from sinusitis.

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Smartphone apps put parking spots at your fingertips A growing number of drivers are turning to a high-tech solution for a low-tech problem — finding a parking spot in the nation’s congested cities. From Pittsburgh to Los Angeles — and dozens of cities in between — mobile applications are becoming available to ease drivers’ search for a place to park. The problem doesn’t always stem from too few spots, but from not enough information about where to find available parking, said Kelly Schwager, the chief marketing officer for Streetline, a smart parking provider.

Smartphone apps put parking spots at your fingertips

A growing number of drivers are turning to a high-tech solution for a low-tech problem — finding a parking spot in the nation’s congested cities.

From Pittsburgh to Los Angeles — and dozens of cities in between — mobile applications are becoming available to ease drivers’ search for a place to park.

The problem doesn’t always stem from too few spots, but from not enough information about where to find available parking, said Kelly Schwager, the chief marketing officer for Streetline, a smart parking provider.

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Element Blue Releases First Mobile App for Smarter Planet Solutions - Beaumont Enterprise

Element Blue, an IBM Premier Partner and leading Smarter Planet solution provider, has released the industry’s first mobile application for use with the IBM Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) platform.

“Our goal in developing the Intelligent Operations Dashboard for Consumers app was to make our real-time solution even more easy and efficient for our clients to use,” said Joey Bernal, Element Blue Managing Partner and CTO.

Using the mobile app, customers may view events, alerts and KPIs through the IOC in real time via any smart device such as iPhone, iPad and Android platforms. The application allows consumers to view updates as they occur on the IOC and associated products such as IBM Intelligent Operations for Water.

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PressureNet App Feeds Scientists Atmospheric Data from Thousands of Smartphones | MIT Technology Review

An Android app that measures atmospheric pressure is now feeding that distributed data to scientists working on better ways to predict the weather.

The app, called PressureNet, highlights the potential of distributed sensing using mobile devices and shows how the sophisticated sensors found in modern smartphones could be harnessed for research. It was launched in late 2011 By Jacob Sheehy, a software developer for Flighthub.com, and Phil Jones, an independent Web designer, who became friends while studying at Concordia University in Montreal.

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This App Turns Your Phone Into a Virtual Urgent Care Center GreatCall, makers of the Jitterbug phone, has introduced the Urgent Care app. It lets you search symptoms, peruse a medical dictionary and basically be your own doctor. Unless, of course, you feel you need one. In that case you simply press a button and you’ll be connected to a live registered nurse who, after asking a few questions, can help diagnose your issues. If more care is needed, the nurse can connect you to a board-certified doctor in your area who will call you within 30 minutes.

This App Turns Your Phone Into a Virtual Urgent Care Center

GreatCall, makers of the Jitterbug phone, has introduced the Urgent Care app. It lets you search symptoms, peruse a medical dictionary and basically be your own doctor. Unless, of course, you feel you need one.

In that case you simply press a button and you’ll be connected to a live registered nurse who, after asking a few questions, can help diagnose your issues. If more care is needed, the nurse can connect you to a board-certified doctor in your area who will call you within 30 minutes.

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Help End Homelessness With This Simple Survey App According to National Alliance to End Homelessness report The State of Homelessness in America 2012, the estimated number of homeless people in the United States was 636,017 at the end last year. That’s a 1% decrease between 2009 and 2011, but there’s still cause for concern — economic and demographic indicators show that homelessness might escalate over the next few years. The 100,000 Homes Campaign is trying to change that with its new mobile-friendly app, Homeless Connector. The campaign, which is a national movement to find permanent homes for 100,000 chronically homeless individuals and families by July 2014, created the app to empower people around the country to help end homelessness. Homeless Connector is a web-based smartphone version of 100,000 Homes’ “Vulnerability Index,” a survey that records data regarding the age, health, institutional history (i.e., military, hospital, jail, prison), and length of homelessness of homeless Americans.

Help End Homelessness With This Simple Survey App

According to National Alliance to End Homelessness report The State of Homelessness in America 2012, the estimated number of homeless people in the United States was 636,017 at the end last year. That’s a 1% decrease between 2009 and 2011, but there’s still cause for concern — economic and demographic indicators show that homelessness might escalate over the next few years.

The 100,000 Homes Campaign is trying to change that with its new mobile-friendly app, Homeless Connector. The campaign, which is a national movement to find permanent homes for 100,000 chronically homeless individuals and families by July 2014, created the app to empower people around the country to help end homelessness.

Homeless Connector is a web-based smartphone version of 100,000 Homes’ “Vulnerability Index,” a survey that records data regarding the age, health, institutional history (i.e., military, hospital, jail, prison), and length of homelessness of homeless Americans.

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Belkin WeMo Baby monitor lets you listen to Junior via an internet connection and an iOS device — Engadget Belkin’s line of WeMo products is all about home automation, and its latest addition, the WeMo Baby, lets you listen to the cooing and crying of your offspring from afar. The device is a WiFi-enabled microphone that streams audio of your baby to up to six devices simultaneously — provided they’re running iOS 5 or higher and the free WeMo Baby companion app. That app’s powered by Evoz’s baby monitoring service and it works over a 3G, 4G, or WiFi connection. So, absentee parents can keep tabs on their bundle of joy whether they’re in another room or sneaking a cold one at the pub round the corner. What’s the price for such parental freedom? $90 when it goes on sale early next month. Full PR and an app screenshot can be found after the break.

Belkin WeMo Baby monitor lets you listen to Junior via an internet connection and an iOS device — Engadget

Belkin’s line of WeMo products is all about home automation, and its latest addition, the WeMo Baby, lets you listen to the cooing and crying of your offspring from afar. The device is a WiFi-enabled microphone that streams audio of your baby to up to six devices simultaneously — provided they’re running iOS 5 or higher and the free WeMo Baby companion app. That app’s powered by Evoz’s baby monitoring service and it works over a 3G, 4G, or WiFi connection. So, absentee parents can keep tabs on their bundle of joy whether they’re in another room or sneaking a cold one at the pub round the corner. What’s the price for such parental freedom? $90 when it goes on sale early next month. Full PR and an app screenshot can be found after the break.

Belkin WeMo Baby monitor lets you listen to junior via iOS devices

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This App Turns Smartphones Into Safe Driving Tools

We know that cellphones and driving don’t mix. Despite the accidents and known risks, 89% of teens say they reply to a text message or email within five minutes, driving or not. So can the technology responsible for distracting many drivers, also serve to prevent roadway collisions and close-calls?

A new app called DriveScribe turns your phone into a “driving coach.” Aimed in particular at helping those new drivers learn the rules-of-the-road, the app monitors speed, and blocks all texts, updates and calls while the car is in motion. It uses GPS, social media, real-time voice feedback and a jamming function to block texts and calls. The app will tell drivers to slow down if they’re going too fast.

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In Traffic? Next Time, Use an App - NYTimes.com EVERYBODY complains about the traffic, like the weather, but no one does anything about it. That may finally be changing as new technology to track cars becomes more widely used. The average commuter in the United States spent 34 hours fuming in traffic in 2010, according to the 2011 Urban Mobility Report from the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. And traffic congestion isn’t just irritating, it’s costly. The report estimates that in 2010 gridlock wasted 1.9 billion gallons of fuel and, coupled with the associated loss in worker productivity, ended up costing $100 billion.

In Traffic? Next Time, Use an App - NYTimes.com

EVERYBODY complains about the traffic, like the weather, but no one does anything about it. That may finally be changing as new technology to track cars becomes more widely used.

The average commuter in the United States spent 34 hours fuming in traffic in 2010, according to the 2011 Urban Mobility Report from the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. And traffic congestion isn’t just irritating, it’s costly. The report estimates that in 2010 gridlock wasted 1.9 billion gallons of fuel and, coupled with the associated loss in worker productivity, ended up costing $100 billion.

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IBM launches augmented reality app for grocery stores | VentureBeat Attention, shoppers. IBM has unveiled an augmented reality mobile app that lets you pan store shelves with your smartphones to receive personalized product tips, recommendations, and coupons. The app is one more example of a creative use of augmented reality, which blends digital data with real-world imagery. The app brings the benefits of digital commerce to traditional brick-and-mortar stores, where 92 percent of retail still takes place, according to market researcher Forrester Research.

IBM launches augmented reality app for grocery stores | VentureBeat

Attention, shoppers. IBM has unveiled an augmented reality mobile app that lets you pan store shelves with your smartphones to receive personalized product tips, recommendations, and coupons.

The app is one more example of a creative use of augmented reality, which blends digital data with real-world imagery. The app brings the benefits of digital commerce to traditional brick-and-mortar stores, where 92 percent of retail still takes place, according to market researcher Forrester Research.

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Voice analysis could help diagnose Parkinson’s, project seeking volunteers | The Verge Applied mathematician and TED Fellow Max Little has been working on ways to diagnose Parkinson’s disease by analyzing voice recordings, but now he’s turning to the public for help. The Parkinson’s Voice Initiative, launched today at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh, is seeking volunteers to submit their voices via a three-minute phone call that will help to refine the algorithms used in research led by Little.

Voice analysis could help diagnose Parkinson’s, project seeking volunteers | The Verge

Applied mathematician and TED Fellow Max Little has been working on ways to diagnose Parkinson’s disease by analyzing voice recordings, but now he’s turning to the public for help. The Parkinson’s Voice Initiative, launched today at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh, is seeking volunteers to submit their voices via a three-minute phone call that will help to refine the algorithms used in research led by Little.

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The Smarter Planet Apps for iOS, Android & Windows Mobile

Smarter Planet

Follow how everything from buildings to food can become smarter through the application of business analytics and IT innovations.

Google Play for Android
Download Smarter Planet
 
 

iTunes App store for iOS
Download Smarter Planet
 
 

Marketplace for Windows Phone
Download Smarter Planet
 

Get these all-new apps, with loads of new features for your smartphone or tablet.  More mobile innovations coming soon, so stay tuned to your favorite app store.

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The Smarter Planet app (version 3.0) integrates content from many spheres of IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative: our blog, Tumblr sites, YouTube, ibm.com, Facebook, Twitter and more.

Our goal is to help people understand how the world’s systems — from cities and buildings to the energy grid, transportation networks, the delivery of healthcare and the food supply chain — are becoming more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent through the application of new business analytics and information technology innovations.

Let’s build a smarter planet together.

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