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E D IT OR’S N OTE Technowize February 2020 Ideas, like seasons, come and go. But over the past few months, we’ve seen some exciting and challenging new ideas – ones that are here to stay for long. Take AI and robotics, for instance. It’s exciting to watch the field take shape. Or, autonomous driving. Who knew that someday a search engine giant would push forward in the autonomous-mobility business? At the same time, it’s also a confusing to see so many exciting trends pop up at this time of the year. So, here at Technowize, we’ve rounded up fresh and functional new ideas, products, designs, and services that would outline the importance of technology and its purpose in our lives. Our February issue is packed with hard to put down success stories. Don’t believe us? Read our cover story to peek into the crazy fast-paced world of cybersecurity where IDMERIT and 9 other leading companies are saving you from the treacherous world of online fraud. Happy Reading!

Like always, we welcome your comments (facebook.com/Technowize, @technowize on Twitter). You may reach us at editor@technowize.com or Editor - Technowize, The Fastest Media, 3651 Lindell Road, Suite 320D, Las Vegas, NV 89103.

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TEAM EDITORIAL

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Anna Domanska

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Editor-in-Chief

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C O N T E N T S

HAUTE MONEY

NPD: Top 10 Games of the Decade

TECHNOPOLIS Technowize looks into the most powerful, innovative, and influential IoT Companies of 2020.

TRENDSPOTTING Deepfake Dystopia or Disinformation? Experts warn there's growing dangers of the said technology changing our cultural, social, and political structures.

COVER STORY A deep dive into the most influential cybersecurity companies to see just how farreaching and all-comprehensive cyber security is in the multi-trillion world of business.

FUTURIST A look at 2020's most intriguing developments in the world of AI and robotics.

HARDWARE, INC. Smallest microchips that would make Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce proud!

APP LABS Coming of age of short video format social apps

TECH EVENTS & TRADESHOW Tops picks of conferences and professional events from around the world.

68 86

116

SHORT TAKES ON THE LATEST CULT-COVERAGE STRAIGHT FROM THE TECH WORLD. By: Anna Versai

NPD: Top 10 Games of the Decade Leading market research organization NPD Group has come up with the top 10 games of the decade. With around 187 million counts of mobile gamers across North America, the group predicted that the video gaming industry would see a further surge and significant gains with people resorting to gaming even on smartphones. According to the NPD Group, in 2017, the video gaming industry generated a revenue surpassing $30 billion in the United States. This was an 18% increase as compared to 2016. The sales were higher in the mobile category rather than in PC gaming. As per the latest report by the video gaming research firm EEDAR, 2017 saw significant growth in paid downloads of games and ingame purchases for mobile as well as tablet devices. The number of gamers- both in teens and adults category has seen a higher increase over the years. In the United States and Canada alone, there are around 229 million consumers of 13+ age group who have access to a smartphone or a tablet. A majority of this number play video games on mobile, thus transforming the users to around 187 million.The NPD Group provided a report of the best-selling video games in the US. This report collaborates not only the sales of the last month but of the previous decade in total. TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

According to the NPD Group, Grand Theft Auto V was the best-selling game of the decade in the United States, while Red Dead Redemption 2 was the best-selling game of the last four years -- both according to dollar sales.

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The best-selling video games from 2010 - 2019 include Call Of Duty and Rockstar. The game Call Of Duty titles compromises seven of the top ten plays from the decade. The Rockstar game stands at the Best-Selling Video Games of 2010-2019 - Grand Theft Auto V

- Call of Duty: Modern

- Call of Duty: Black Ops

Warfare 2019

- Call of Duty: Black Ops II

- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

- Call Of Duty: Modern

Mario Kart 8

Warfare 3

- Call of Duty: Infinite

- Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Warfare

- Call Of Duty: Ghosts

- Battlefield 1

- Red Dead Redemption II

- Battlefield 4

- Call of Duty: WWII

- Destiny

- Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII

- The Legend of Zelda:

- Minecraft

Breath of the Wild

- Call of Duty: Advanced

- Star Wars Battlefront 2015

Warfare

first spot. Of this list, the only game that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fall in the Call of Duty or Rockstar series is the game Minecraft which falls in 10th position. The Call of Duty game featured as half the best-selling video games of the decade. In the 16th place, there is another shooter game with Battlefield 1,

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Battlefield 4 and the game Destiny in 16th, 17th and 18th places. The second game of Nintendoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s franchise is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sitting at the 19th place and Star Wars Battlefront in the 20th place. When compared to the previous list of top games of the decade 2000-2009, we see a stark contrast. Best Selling Games of 2000-2009

- Guitar Hero III Legends

- Call Of Duty: World At

Of Rock

War

- Wii Fit

- Guitar Hero 2

- Rock Band

- Rock Band 2

- Wii Play W/ Remote

- Madden NFL 07

- Guitar Hero World Tour

- Halo 3

- Call Of Duty: Modern

- Madden NFL 08

Warfare 2

- Grand Theft Auto: Vice

- Call Of Duty 4: Modern

City

Warfare

- Madden NFL 09

- Mario Kart Wii

- Halo 2

- Grand Theft Auto: San

- Grand Theft Auto IV

Andreas

- Madden NFL 06

Video gaming has always been a popular activity among the teen as well as adults. With the rise of smartphones, there has been a significant rise in the number of video gamers too. TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

Scientists Use Frog Stem Cells To Create Living, Healing Robots Meet the Xenobots: Tiny robots, named after the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), that can walk, work together, and self-heal after injury. Xenobot- this is the name scientists have termed for the first living and self-healing robots. More surprising is the fact that these robots are created with the help of frog stem cells! The robots are named Xenobot after the famous African clawed frog (scientific name is Xenopus laevis), from which the scientists acquired the stem cells. The Xenobot has a machine micro less than a millimeter (around 0.04 inches) wide. At this size, the robot can quickly move around inside a human body. The Xenobots can perform activities like walking, swimming, survive without any food for days and even collaborate in groups. Xenobots are different from traditional robots. Traditional robots are equipped with arms and shinier gears, Xenobot has none! Xenobot more looks like a pink blob- a piece of flesh. It is a biological machine that has super properties. The significant difference between traditional robots and Xenobots lies in the fact that conventional robots mortify over time and end up producing harmful substances and ecological effects to humans as well as the environment. In contrast, Xenobots do not provide any toxic substances. Xenobots are environment-friendly!

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A manufactured quadruped organism, 650-750 microns in diameterâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a bit smaller than a pinhead. (Credit: Douglas Blackiston, Tufts University.)

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University of Vermont professor Josh Bongard. (Photo: Joshua Brown)

Creating the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first living robots! As stem cells have the functional ability to form different cells, scientists scraped the living stem cells from the African clawed frog embryos and incubated them. Once they were nurtured, the cells were neatly cut and reshaped into body forms. A significant aspect of these body forms is that they were one of a kind form and were created by a supercomputer! The supercomputer played a principal role in creating these robots. After they are formed, the cells started to work- they bonded, built structures, their heart pulsed and the muscle cells made the robots move around on their own. Xenobots are equipped with self-healing abilities when the scientist cut one robot; the organism healed entirely by itself and started moving again. TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

Xenobots may advance internal drug delivery Xenobots would prove useful for surgeries as some of them have holes that can be used to carry drugs or medicines to the body. They can also be used for several other tasks, including cleaning up radioactive waste, collect and degrade microplastic from the oceans, transport medicine inside the human body. They can also travel inside the arteries of the human body and bring out plague and infection. Xenobots can survive in an aqueous environment for a multitude of days or even weeks without nutrients. They are a perfect tool for internal drug delivery. Xenobots can also be a helpful tool to study and conduct more research into cellular biology. By exploring cells and more of the inside of the human body, the Xenobots can open up avenues of future advancement in the field of human health and cellular biology. With the help of Xenobots, scientists can make a 3D natural form of the human body and can quickly cure congenital disabilities, transform body tumors into healthy tissue and regenerate traumatic injury. This advancement in the field would swoop up the field of regenerative medicine to heights. Xenobots are equipped with lipid and protein deposits of their own. This allows them to survive for more than a week without any additional nutrients. Xenobots donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t possess the capacity to reproduce or evolve, though however, their life span can increase to a multitude of weeks when they receive regular nutrition. Xenobots are a boon to humankind, for the extensive roles it can play and because they are unlike the regular robots. Their superpower to self-heal is a crucial advantage, and their size of being able to enter a human body and transport medicine in future seems a blessing in itself!

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The California Consumer Privacy Act: What you need to know about the new IoT Security Law California in the United States has become the first state to pass a law, The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), regulating the security of connected gadgets that are commonly referred to as the Internet of things (IoT) devices. The law took into effect from January 1, 2020. The law requires all IoT devices sold in California to be equipped with reasonable security measures. The bill covers all personal information contained in the IoT devices as well. Governor Jerry Brown signed the legislation for the bill in September 2018. Under the law, a connected device is defined as any device or object that can be connected to the Internet and has an IP address or Bluetooth capability. This definition includes not only consumer devices but industrial IoT devices, those used in the health field and retail point of sale products (condition to their not being covered under other Federal laws). The act mandates that anyone selling or dealing with the IoT devices needs to follow specific rules to make them safe: "(1) Appropriate to the nature and function of the device. (2) Appropriate to the information it may collect, contain, or transmit. (3) Designed to protect the device and any information contained

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CCPA has come into enforcement due to the high number of data breaches witnessed by the state in the last few years.

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Under the law, a connected device is defined as any device or object that can be connected to the Internet and has an IP address or Bluetooth capability. This definition includes not only consumer devices but industrial IoT devices, those used in the health field and retail point of sale products (condition to their not being covered under other Federal laws).

therein from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure." 2018 Cal. Legis. Serv. Ch. 886 (S.B. 327) (to be codified at Cal. Civ. Code ยง 1798.91.04(a)). Another critical point to note is that the law cannot be enforced by private action but needs a government attorney to take action. Only an attorney general, a city attorney, a county counsel, or a district attorney can bring action. The law also does not exclude police and other enforcement agencies from getting information from connected devices. Further, all manufacturers of such products are covered under this law irrespective of the fact where the products are made. This will include all out -sourcing of the devices too.

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The legislation is not clear on how far third-party sourcing of software will come under its gambit. It means that the device with security features safeguard any information it may collect or transmit. And it should also be able to protect the device from any unauthorized attempts at taking control of it. The order also says a password authentication layer should be added for any devices controlled by a non-local IP address. This law has come into enforcement due to the high number of data breaches witnessed by the state in the last few years. The California Department of Justice (CDOJ) released the California Data Breach Report in 2016 and an analysis of over 657 data breaches reported between 2012 and 2015. It has come up with certain measures to be followed for the prevention of violations. The report lists 20 security compliance measures. It says the criteria set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology should be the standard benchmarks. The legislation clarifies a whole range of equipment under its purview, including Copy machines, Printers Fax machines, VoIPenabled phones, Televisions, Bluetooth headsets, Cash registers (point-of-sale terminals generally), Handheld barcode readers, Smart thermostats, Keycard readers (for doors)Security cameras, Light bulbs, Environmental control panels, Lab equipment, Medical diagnostic equipment, Warehouse inventory scanners, Refrigerators, Personal fitness monitors, Wristwatches (iWatch), Armbands, Glasses, Connected vehicles.

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New Technology Gadgets We Loved at CES 2020! The first day at the CES 2020 is all about keynote addresses and press briefings held by big companies like Samsung, Intel, Bosch, and such. The real action begins when the public exhibition halls open up. Still, here is a glimpse of some interesting reveals of day 1 at the CES.

Vizio Soundbar Vizioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Elevate soundbar is a 10-channel, 5.1.4 sound system that features 18 drivers and a wireless subwoofer. Its two speakers physically rotate depending on what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re watching or listening to at any given moment. It throws sound upwards when you play Dolby Atmos or DTS:X sound. For everything else (like music or standard surround sound), they point forward. It supports Bluetooth 5.0 and Chromecast audio. The Elevate measures 48 inches across. Vizio is well-known for its affordable sound systems. Its high-end options are worth the money too. The new soundbar line comes with backlit remotes, which was missing in its earlier versions. Pricing at the moment is not clear, but it will be competitive.

An Ice Cube Ouster

It is called Juno, manufactured by Matrix--the company that manufactures smartwatches powered by body heat. The device can rapidly cool anything that can fit in its cylindrical structure. The device

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Vizio Soundbar TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

is made to modify the temperature of your drink with thermoelectric cooling (TEC) technology that is â&#x20AC;&#x153;as simple to use as a toaster,â&#x20AC;? reads the description. It is small, compact, and approximately 8-inches by 13-inches by 16-inches. One can fit a bottle into it or pour the liquid into the container provided. It can easily fit on a countertop. No more waiting for the refrigerator to cool ice. The cooling system is environment-friendly as no chemicals are

An Ice Cube Ouster TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

used for cooling. It uses the Peltier effectâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it transfers heat from one material to another electronically. Its cooling time is an average of two minutes. You can pre-order the gadget, and shipping starts in Q3, 2020, and it is priced at $199.

A snore snooze pillow Yes, after a pinching contraption, there is an easier method to stop the loud nasal noise that keeps your partner awakeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the snore stopping pillow.

A snore snooze pillow TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

South Korea based TenMinds has come up with this solution called Motion Pillow. It is a memory foam pillow filled with four airbags and a sensor-based pressure monitoring system. It has a microphone attached to detect snoring frequencies. The whole thing is app-based. The way it works is, once the system detects the loud snoring frequency, the pillow then automatically starts inflating and turns your neck into a new position, akin to someone nudging you into a new position to stop the snoring. A manual version of this pillow is available and retails for $378. This automatic Motion Pillow will retail for $420 and will be available from April onwards.

Lovot A trio of lovable robots, almost like toddlers captured hearts at the CES 2020 unveiling. Reminiscent of Teletubbies, the robots, called Lovots, are mechanical pets that need no feeding or walking. What they respond to is just a little bit of love. Affection and coddling lead to cute giggles, joyful movements, and cooing noises. Manufactured by a Japanese startup GrooveX, Lovots are built to stir up your instinct for love. The robot has been in the making for three years and will finally be hitting the market in 2020. It will retail for $3000, which does not seem too steep to the people who have interacted with it at the CES.

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Lovot Reports say the robots are pretty advanced and interactive. They make friendly overtures, which can be a boon to lonely hearts and people who are afraid of social interactions. It is programmed to progressively build a relationship with the owner, with face recognition and greetings at the door. It is clothed in a soft terrycloth, has three wheels and a camera.

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Russia starts testing its own internal internet Russia has successfully tested an internal internet within the country, separate from the World Wide Web, according to a state report. There are no details about how and when the internet will be made available to the public. The results of the test run will be shared with President Putin. President Putin signed a law, Sovereign Runet, earlier this year, paving the way for infrastructure to build an internal internet, if the government found it necessary, and also allowing the government to block access to the worldwide web. The tests run by the government assessed the threat to all devices operating under internet-of-thing and how well Runet blocked “external negative influences” or its ability to withstand cyber threats, according to a report by the state news agency Tass. Russia’s "sovereign Internet" law in effect will enable the government to monitor information interface in real-time, cut off access to content it deems “dangerous". The deputy head of the Ministry of Communications said that the tests had gone as planned, reported Pravda. "The results of the exercises showed that, in general, both the

TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

authorities and telecoms operators are ready to effectively respond to emerging risks and threats, to ensure the stable functioning of both the internet and unified telecommunication network in the Russian Federation," said Alexey Sokolov. This move may be a precursor to restricting access to the broader world web within the country. China and Iran both have such a network controlling the browsing of the citizens. An internal net controls how far it is allowed to interface with the world web, an excellent way to control the dissemination of information. "That would effectively get ISPs [internet service providers] and telcos to configure the internet within their borders as a gigantic intranet, just like a large corporation does," explained Prof Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at the University of Surrey. Undersea cables and nodes are used to transmit data from several servers outside the country to within the state. Any control over the information exchange needs rights over domestic ISPs, which is easier if they are state-owned. In such a scenario, Virtual Private Networks, which are used to mask browsing history and circumvent blocked sites, will not function. Iran has the National Information Network, which is state-owned and controls all the data transmitted through the internet in the country. China built a firewall, which blocked search engines like Google and Bing. The homegrown engines that are widely used in the country are Baidu and Qihoo360.

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Russiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s "sovereign Internet" law in effect will enable the government to monitor information interface in real-time, cut off access to content it deems â&#x20AC;&#x153;dangerous". The deputy head of the Ministry of Communications said that the tests had gone as planned.

Russia has some amazing start-ups like Mail.Ru, Yandex and Telegram. They have the ability to start internal webs but will they be allowed to function independently is a moot question? Recently, a bill was introduced in the Russian Parliament restricting ownership of tech companies by foreigners to 20 per cent. The bill was an attempt to extend state ownership over Yandex and Mail.Ru, which have significant foreign investments. But both Yandex and MailRu dodged the attempt by reconfiguring their ownership structure and allowing some government officials on their boards. Earlier, the government successfully disallowed a Facebook-like app from functioning and even tried to interfere in the workings of the highly popular chat app Telegram. It is common for the Russian government to shut down Internet services during protests and marches.

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To a

CONNECTED

Life By: Diana Coker

TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

Innovators across the world have doubled down on developed IoT solutions. Technowize looks into the most powerful, innovative, and influential IoT Companies of 2020.

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Internet of Things or IoT is the world of connected devices. It is the extension of the internet to the sensors in connected devices and felicitating the giving and receiving of information into intelligent output. The IoT as a concept was introduced in the 1990s, and its reach has slowly extended into almost every part of our lives. The simplest explanation of the workings of IoT is a smart home. With the help of Alexa or Google home, one can check the security, control temperatures, play music, news, lights; the list is endless and potential limitless. The connected devices or smart devices, as enumerated above, have the ability to gather data, share it with other connected devices and compute and analyse the same and then perform the required function with little human interference.

With the help of Alexa or Google home, one can check the security, control temperatures, play music, news, lights; the list is endless and potential limitless.

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Some

IOT Facts 2019 saw 26.66 billion active IoT devices.

2023 will likely see 3.5 billion cellular IoT connections.

The combined IoT market size in 2021 is going to be $520 billion.

Considering the potential and application of IoT, many companies are occupying a vital space in this industry.

127 new IoT devices are connecting to the internet every second.

Here we list a few that are already established and some which are startups destined to enter the big league.

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HQ Software HQSoftware is an international IoT, AR, and VR company in the business since 2011. Its core competencies are developing IoT in industrial healthcare, automotive, and smart cities. They provide programming for hardware, devices and sensors, and also web and mobile applications, including third-party integration for all its major clients including the United Nations, WHO, Skoda, and Sega.

ScienceSoft Sciencesoft is headquartered in the United States and provides a full range of IOT services, including the development of softwares, maintenance, implementation, analytics, and consultation. Its solutions offer third party integration. It provides end-to-end project setups with analysis, design, selection, and maintenance. It specializes in IoT architecture and cybersecurity strategy. It can set up an IoT system from scratch, re-engineer an existing one, help you upscale, and deliver an IoT solution that will improve operational efficiency and be cost-effective. As part of its journey, ScienceSoft has partnered with Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Salesforce, Magento, ServiceNow, Episerver and many other leading tech companies

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PTC PTC , headquartered in Boston, moved to the big league in Internet of Things with its partnership with Rockwell Automative and Microsoft, which brought in an investment of $1 billion. PTC integrated its augmented reality platform and IoT business with Rockwellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s manufacturing software platform PTCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strength lies in IoT, augmented reality, computer-aided design, and product lifecycle management for customers across all industries. PTC's ThingWorx IIoT platform is designed for industrial IoT solutions. PTC has a presence in over 30 countries and has an annual revenue of over $1 billion. The industrial software company's partnership with Microsoft resulted in several significant customer engagements for joint deployments of ThingWorx and Microsoft's Azure cloud service.

ARM Arm Holdings is a British multinational software design company, owned by the Japanese SoftBank Group and its Vision Fund. ARM provides complete Internet of Things solutions with Internet Protocol for the chips or sensors in devices, secure cloud data storage, and further deployment services. ARM is the world's leading technology provider of silicon IP for the intelligent System-on-Chips.

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ARM has a whole plethora of IoT products with pre-integrated systems to enable clients to deploy the systems easily.ARMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pelion IoT platform is a flexible system allowing efficient connectivity, and device and data management.

Altair Altair Engineering, headquartered in Troy, Michigan, is an information technology corporation engaged in providing enterprise services, cloud computing, and design and engineering solutions. The company was established in 1985. In IoT, it has Altaircore, a flexible and scalable open architecture platform system, which allows customers to build their solution over it. The platform has good data visualization and storage capabilities. It allows third-party integration, collaboration, and analysis of data in real-time. Altair also has Altair HyperWorks, a leading simulation platform, and Altair PBS Worksâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, its cloud technology network, allowing its users to implement highly scalable IoT projects.

Enevo Enevo is a waste technology company. It uses IoT solutions to deliver optimal waste management systems to companies, smart cities, and organizations. It provides complete waste management solutions with its patented technology. It uses wireless sensors to measure the waste level of trash containers. It uses cloud computing to forecast full bins and optimises the collection routes accordingly. TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

Enovo tech analyses waste patterns, structures waste collection routes, tracks the delivery, misses and collections, and even recycling. It is an efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable system. Its esteemed customers include McDonald’s and a doughnut franchise where they managed to save 12 percent and 28 percent wastage, respectively.

Vates Vates is a California-based global technology company with offices in Argentina and Chile. It has been in operation for over 25 years. Vates’ provides loT solutions using big data, cloud, and machine learning technology. Vates offers IoT systems integration application solutions and prototype testing services to test a product’s usability and readiness. It designs and creates innovative IoT solutions using proprietary Vates Rapid Prototyping (VRP) methodology. This helps in the early detection of design flaws that affect technical, operational,and economic feasibility. The company helps enterprises in getting multi-platform fully integrated IoT apps for using state of-the-art integrated architecture and testing services.

TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

SPOTTING

Deepfake DYSTOPIA

DISINFORMATION By: Anna Versai

With the proliferation of AI-powered media manipulation apps and features, Deepfake technology has entered into realm of mainstream media and popular culture. Experts warn that there's also growing dangers of the said technology changing our cultural, social, and political structures.

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SPOTTING

eeing is believing. This is an age-old adage that the wise ones repeatedly told us through the ages. But in this day and age of technology advances, do not believe all that you see.

Lately, there have been many instances when users of social media were left astounded to see well-known personalities and celebrities spouting politically incorrect speeches. For instance, Barack Obama calling Trump a dipshit was stretching reality a bit far. In the deepfake video, Jon Snow apologizes for the writing, editing, and the seaon in general. "When the the Starbucks cup is the smallest mistake, you know you fucked up. We take the blame. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m sorry we wrote this in, like, six days or something. Now, let us burn the script of season eight and just forget it forever. Fuck season eight!â&#x20AC;?

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People unhappy with the way Game of Thrones series ended, had Jon Snow giving a moving apology for the dismal ending. A video of Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, was slowed down by 25 per cent and the pitch altered to make it seem like she was slurring her words. This was not a deepfake. It is something called shallowfake where videos and photos are presented out of context or edited to represent a falsehood. The consequence of the Pelosi shallowfake was that people unhappy with Facebook for hosting it on its site and initially refusing to pull it down, posted a retaliatory deepfake. Artist Bill Posters posted a clip on Instagram showing Mark Zuckerberg boasting of how the platform "owns" its users. The aim was to show Facebook about how tech could also come back to bite it. Recently, Jet Li’s face was replaced by Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. CZ retweeted the parody video but was equally concerned about the challenges ahead if this trend continued. There are already concerns over fake news and videos taking over the internet and leading to some severe consequences. The 2016 elections in the United States are a case in point. Events that are falsely represented and without authentications have the power to turn the course of world events. In India, many false videos circulating on chat channels have led to vigilantism and fatal consequences for innocents.

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SPOTTING

SO WHAT IS DEEPFAKE? It is the modern-day version of photoshopping. Doctored videos using â&#x20AC;&#x153;deepâ&#x20AC;? technology are put out on social media. Deepfake uses deep learning technology to apply neural net simulation onto massive data sets to create a fake. Artificial intelligence is used to get all angles and nuances of a face and then the same is transposed on to the target face, generally a famous personality. Advances in generative adversarial networks (GANS) use opensource artificial intelligence algorithms to create fakes by teaching the synthesis engine to make better forgeries. Ian Goodfellow, a Ph.D. student at the University of Montreal, presented a paper on GANs with fellow researcher Youshua Bengion in 2014. Goodfellow

Most deepfakes doing the rounds on the internet are pornographic. Deeptrace, an AI firm, put the number of deepfakes online at 15,000 in September.

is credited with introducing this pioneering tech to the world. He now works at Apple. Most deepfakes doing the rounds on the internet are pornographic. Deeptrace, an AI firm, put the number of deepfakes online at 15,000 in September. A staggering 96% were pornographic, and 99% were of

TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

female celebrities superimposed on to porn stars. Scarlett Johansson, the most famous face used in porn videos, expressed concern about the phenomenon, describing it as a “vast wormhole of darkness that eats itself.” Improved technology that is easy to use is allowing people to make deepfake videos with photographs and may soon be a standard tool used in revenge porn. Danielle Citron, a professor of law at Boston University, said in a statement to a news channel: “Deepfake technology is being weaponized against women.” Beyond that, it is being used as spoofs, satire, and creating misinformation.

Who is using deepfakes? Almost everyone. From porn producers, academics, industrial researchers, entertainment and media, and amateurs to governments are dabbling into it. Governments use it to discredit opponents, extremist groups, or for strategic purposes. We have seen examples of how entertainment and other media outlets are using it for nefarious purposes. It is easy to make deepfakes as plenty of free tools are available. Companies are willing to undertake such ventures. There is an app Zao facilitating deepfaking. The whole process is not easy and does not happen at the touch of a

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SPOTTING

button. One needs high-end computers and graphic cards. Hours of training and skills are required to produce an authentic product. Zao, one of the many Deepfake apps available online to turn yourself into somebody else on screen.

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Deepfake Dystopia Do deepfakes have the muscle power to undermine or destabilize governments? It is not clear till date. Deepfake videos can be both malicious and nonmalicious or synthetic media. At the moment, more deepfake videos are out to demean, harass, intimidate, and destabilize. Biometric data authentications is compromised with deepfakes, which can mimic face, voice, veins, or gait. Scams based on voice and fake videos can be initiated. If your mother asks for urgent money transfer on the phone, it is plausible you will oblige. Recently, a video of Elon Musk smoking a joint led to his companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stocks going down on the bourses. We have already talked about how deepfakes can affect political outcomes. But all is not lost. Governments

Do deepfakes have the muscle power to undermine or destabilize governments? and companies are funding research into detecting deepfakes. Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon have launched a deepfake spotting challenge inviting global teams to participate. Facebook has agreed to be more vigilant about posts that spread misinformation in the runup to the 2020 elections. Another concern is that vested interests will use deepfake as an excuse to cover up their misdeeds. The government dismissed a video showing a mass killing in Cameroon as fake. In a reverse role, authentic proofs of happenings can be now dismissed as doctored.

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SPOTTING

Deepfake as a positive But there is another side to this coin. There are many good uses for deepfake too. Deepfakes can be used for productive gains and for new modes of artistic expression. In the entertainment industry, synthetic digital copies of the real ones can be used in differing contextsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in gaming as game skins or voice skins, voice-overs, or advertisements. Synthetically created digital images can be used in different narratives and will become a tradable commodity marketed by agents. Prodigies and inventors can be saved for posterity, and even dead ones can be reincarnated from photos. Museums can become animated with deep fake artists taking you around. Dead actors can be resurrected. A James Dean movie is on the anvil for die-hard fans of the young talent. Measures to prevent misuse of these images will require more legislation and vigilance. A watermark, fingerprinting, and some such authentication on the videos and photos can go some way in deterring amateurs. A blockchain-like open ledger with a stamp on every video and photograph can create a digital registry. California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed two legislations to fight deepfakes. One allows victims of synthetic pornographic deepfakes to sue the videoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creators. The second one will make it illegal for anyone in California to share deepfakes of a political candidate within 60 days of an election. It is a small step but in the right direction.

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LEADING THE WAY By: Olivia Miller

The influence of cybersecurity isn't to be underestimated. So take a look through the list of most influential cybersecurity companies to see just how far-reaching and all-comprehensive cyber security is in the multi-trillion world of businessâ&#x20AC;Ś Cybersecurity is a happening industry with almost all aspects of digital business needing security. No business utilizing the internet is secure without some form of antivirus to protect its files from security threats that may hinder its processes or wipe out entire data or steal private information for nefarious purposes. News of

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hacking and cyber thefts getting into highly secure government data and big corporate entities is common. No business can afford not to have strong cyber policing as an integral part of its information technology systems. It is nearly a 100 billion dollar industry. Gartner predicted that worldwide spending on information security products and services would peak $124B by 2020. By 2021, cyber attacks will cost the world $6 trillion. Cyber criminals are getting bolder and finding new ways to sneak into a company's digital systems. Below, we feature the best companies working in cybersecurity that you can hire. Most have a long and effective presence in the field with a proven track record, and some are innovative maverick firms that specialize in creating secure firewalls for your businesses.

Gartner predicted that worldwide spending on information security products and services peak $124B by 2020.

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Cloudflare Cloudflare is a San Francisco-based security and performance service vendor. It launched an IPO in 2019 in the New York Stock Exchange that raised $525 million on a valuation of $4.4 billion.

Michelle Zatlyn, Lee Holloway, and Matthew Prince Cloudflare Co-Founders

The IPO followed a series E funding from Franklin Templeton for $150 million. This cash infusion has led to the company extending its product ranges and international expansion into new markets. Cloudflare specializes in Content Delivery Network that enables safer and faster websites, mobiles and SaaS services. It is popular with e-commerce businesses for its expertise in reducing lag, providing top-end security features and seamless navigation of the sites.

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IDMERIT IDMERIT is based out of San Diego, California. Although new in the cybersecurity and identity verification sector, they have proven their mettle by providing robust identity verification solutions to airports, banks, payment gateways, e-commerce, government agencies, and online gaming companies using ground-breaking technologies.

Tony Raval CEO & Co-Founder

IDMERIT incorporates all the elements you might expect of a 21st-century digital cybersecurity offering, including facial recognition, biometric authentication, deepfake video detection, and image spoofing. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest offerings include IDMverify, IDMvalidate, and IDMrisk. Government agencies around the world are now using IDMverify to fight identity fraud, data breaches and non-compliance using the platformâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s machine learning-enabled capabilities. IDMvalidate has set the pace for how to provide instant ID authentication results for banks, embassies, financial institutions, and cryptocurrency exchanges.

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IDMrisk is a machine learning software aimed against fighting online fraud. It leverages device analytics in real time to determine if a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobile, tablet or desktop device is considered legitimate or is attempting fraud. Suffice to say, IDMERIT has changed the way companies fight fraud online. As the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CEO, Tony Raval is one of the most influential people on the cybersecurity scene. He has been acknowledged as a thought leader and become a part of the Forbes Tech Council. With an incredibly successful track record, IDMERIT is forging the way businesses provide new standards for fully-automated, seamless and global identity verification solutions. IDMERIT clearly emerges as a winner in this list of the most all-pervading, far-reaching cybersecurity companies of 2020.

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CrowdStrike

George Kurtz (Left) President/CEO & Co-Founder

Dmitri Alperovitch (Right)

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer

In 2019, CrowdStrike, the Sunnyvale-based cybersecurity firm raised $612 million in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq, which raised its valuation to $6.6 billion. The valuation has gone up to $10 billion now with its stock performance. CrowdStrike's IPO set a record in the cybersecurity space. It did better than both Palo Alto Networks' 2012 IPO as well as Cloudflare's in 2019. CrowdStrike's cyber platform is Falcon, which is sold through channel partners. It has developed a three-pronged marketing strategy with the addition of solution providers. It provides generous market development funds and for research to improve its marketing and solution channels. Their Falcon platform stops all kind of breaches. CrowdStrike's Threat Graph provides real-time analysis of data, allowing the detection and prevention of attacks based on behavioral pattern recognition technology. CrowdStrike markets to mid-level customers like educational institutes and state and local governments. It has teamed up with Dell to offer a security network called Secureworks TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

Fortinet Fortinet is based in Sunnyvale, California. Fortinet has built a solid reputation as a cybersecurity firm since its inception in 2000. It had a revenue of $2.1 billion in 2019. Research firm Gartner places it top of the list in unified threat management (UTM) and in next gen firewalls (NGFW). More than 20,000 organizations have adopted its products.

Ken Xie Founder, Chairman of the Board, & Chief Executive Officer

Fortinet's cloud security platform is integrated with Google Cloud Platform, which gives its customers advanced security. It recently acquired CyberSponse for $28 million, and enSilo for $20 million to strengthen realtime automated detection and response capabilities. Fortinet plans to align its North American and international programs into a single global program for better benefits and discounts across different regions. Its new FortiCloud Services gives cloud security and management capabilities that are flexible and scalable.

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Centrify Centrify is a leader in preventing data breaches and providing world-class access management services. Their world-renowned Zero Trust Privilege platform is a top-notch legacy system Centrify's customer base is impressive with over half of Fortune 100 companies, including financial institutions, intelligence agencies, infrastructure organizations and more.

Tim Steinkopf Chief Executive Officer

Its access management system is based on a three-tiered threat prevention process. The Zero Trust Privilege verifies who is requesting access, the context of the request, and the risk of the access environment. This process allows Centrify to minimize attacks, risks and costs, and improves audit and compliance visibility.

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Splunk

Doug Merritt President and Chief Executive Officer

Splunk is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and was started in 2003. It earlier provided IT Service Management and then expanded into security automation and ransomware threat. It specializes in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and user behavior analytics (UEBA). The company provides realtime alerts of security breaches in software products and services based on behavioral patterns and long-term analytics. Its annual revenue is pegged at around $1.30 billion. The company tops in Gartner's magic quotient for SIEM and has good customer satisfaction ratings. It has recently performed well and managed to increase its customer base with some big names using their services.

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Palo Alto Networks

Nikesh Arora Chief Executive Officer

It is based in Santa Clara, California. Palo Alto is a rising security provider company. It offers firewalls, endpoint protection, and cloud access among many other services. It has more than 50,000 customers, including more than 85 of the Fortune 100. Gartner named it top in its 2019 magic quotient list. Its cybersecurity products include Nextgen firewalls, user-based analytics services, cloud security, endpoint protection, and threat detection and prevention services. It also works closely with Google cloud security. Palo Alto spent nearly $1.25 billion in 2019 on five strategic acquisitions. It spent $560 million to buy Demisto to better leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning. Palo Alto Networks spent $150 million to buy Aporeto. The company also launched the Prisma business unit in 2019 to protect data and secure applications in the cloud. It was founded in 2005 and has an annual revenue of around $2 billion. It recently underwent a major upset with an internal vulnerability issue, but it has been able to overcome the setback and forge ahead.

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Idaptive Idaptive was hived off Centrify last year. It is a leader and access management. Its company motto is built on Zero Trustâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Never trusts always verify approach.

Danny Kibel

It provides secure access for almost every connected device. Its access technology provides single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, enterprise mobility management, and user behavior analytics Idaptive's tools are used in over 2,000 organizations all over the world today.

Chief Executive Officer

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Proofpoint

Gary Steele Chief Executive Officer

Proofpoint is based in Sunnyvale, California and provides cybersecurity and compliance solutions on email, the web, the cloud, and social media. It provides malware detection, phishing and personal identity theft protection, cyber protection training, and ecosystem protection. Proofpoint spent nearly $350 million on acquiring Meta Networks and ObserveIt. It spent $120 million to acquire Meta Networks to help customers better protect people, applications and data. Then later in 2019, Proofpoint acquired ObserveIT for $225 million to better secure data across email, cloud, and the endpoint. It will beef up Proofpoint's threat detection and intelligence with ObserveIT's endpoint agent and data risk analytics. Its year-over-year sales grew by more than 24 percent in the first nine months of 2019 to nearly $645 million.

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Mimecast Mimecast is based in Lexington, Massuchessets, and is into email security. It has been steadily moving into the big league with new acquisitions and hiring the data security expert, Kurt Mills, who earlier worked with Blue Coat Systems, Websense and McAfee.He joined Mimecast in 2019.

Peter Bauer Chief Executive Officer

His agenda is to put in place a training and technical support module, marketing, and forging vendor partnerships. The company recently acquired data migration technology provider Simply Migrate and DMARC Analyzer, an email security startup. Simply Migrate will help its customers to move to the cloud more quickly, reliably and inexpensively. DMARC will help it reduce domain spoofing attacks. The company was valued at $2.2 billion recently. The company's year-over-year sales showed a 28 percent growth worth $203 million in the first half of the company's 2020 fiscal year.

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Rapid7

Corey E. Thomas Chief Executive Officer

Rapid7 gives full visibility, analytics, and automation to help manage vulnerabilities, monitor malicious behavior, shut down attacks, and automate operations. It is based in Boston, Massachusetts. To help in the detection and prevention of malware, it invested $16.1 million in Irelandbased NetFort, which provides end-to-end network monitoring across cloud, virtual and physical networks. Rapid7 has developed a slew of cyber products under its Insight tool. Insight DR is a user behavior and SIEM tool. InsightVM is into vulnerability management and Insight Connect is into automation. Wall Street has given the company a valuation of $2.82 billion. It has seen an annual sales increase of almost 34 percent.

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For many, the introduction to a futuristic way of living was the Jetson family cartoon with their sky apartment, flying cars and robots doing all the housework. For todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kids, it is SkyNet from Transformers or Iron Man Tony Starkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jarvis-like butler. The 21st century may have not yet reached that state of living, but we are undoubtedly moving to that destination. Some high-tech companies already have impressive robots that make us feel that the Jetson era is here. We've rounded up some real-life robots you can check out:

Sofia Sofia is a humanoid-like robot developed by the Hong-Kong based company Hanson robotics. Sofia is a combination of Artificial Intelligence robotics and creative designing. She is the first robot to gain citizenship, given by Saudi Arabia. And the first robot Innovation Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme. She has attained celebritydom with appearances on the Good Morning Show of Britain and the Jimmy Fallon show. She is a prime example of cutting edge robotics and Artificial intelligence application in media and entertainment. Sophia is wired for neural networks, expert systems, machine perception, conversational natural language processing, adaptive motor control, and cognitive architecture among other things. All this enables her to recognize specific human emotions, expressions, and hand gestures. Sophia is a hybrid of collective human intelligence and AI. Sophia will be used in medicine, education, and AI research

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Robo-C Russian startup Promobot claims to have launched the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first human-look alike android robot. It has more than 100,000 speech modules and can be designed to look like any human. It has an AI built to function as a home helper, friend, do basic tasks like turning on gadgets, read the news, etc. It can be used as a business representative and can function as a customer support android. The company says it can answer customer queries at airports, museums, restaurants, banks, and even

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perform basic cash functions like accepting payments. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s founder, Oleg Kivokurtsev, says that there is a perception that humans respond to robots that look human-like better; hence, they developed Robo-C. Robo-C has 18 moving parts in its face, giving it 36 degrees of freedom. It also has over 600 micro facial expressions. It canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t walk around but can move its neck and torso.

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Pepper Pepper was introduced in 2014. It is manufactured by Softbank robotics (formerly Aldebaran Robotics) and is the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first robot to recognize human emotions. It is optimized for human interactions and can converse through speech and touch screen. Pepper is used by over 2000 companies worldwide for customer services. It welcomes, informs, and guides visitors. It has 360 movement and 20 degrees of freedom for expressive movements of face and neck. It can recognize and answer in 15 languages. It has speech, movement, cameras, and infrared sensors. It can be found in all Softbank mobile stores and works in Renault dealerships in France. At 120cm tall, Pepper has no trouble in perceiving its environment and entering into a conversation when it sees a person. The touch screen on its chest displays content to highlight messages and support speech.

A robot designed to interact with humans TECHNOWIZE MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2020

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UBTEch’s Walker UBTECH’s Walker robot was first introduced at the CES 2019. UBTech is a China-based robotics company that sells toys and home robots. Walker is a bipedal humanoid robot. It can walk smoothly, interact, and is able to navigate. It is supposed to be a complete home butler and can manage your calendar, emails, patrol the house, and even kick a soccer ball around. Walker can maneuver stairs. Bipedal robots are generally heavy and make much noise, but Walker is lightweight and solidly stable. The robot has yet not been released in the market but may well become a popular choice due to its ability to walk. UBTech intends to introduce arms for Walker at a later date.

Walker is your agile smart companion—an intelligent, bipedal humanoid robot that aims to one day be an indispensable part of your family.

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Buddy Buddy, as the name suggests, is a companion robot that can interact with people. It has some protective functions too and can act as a watchdog. Buddy is a cute robot manufactured by Blue Frog Robotics and is designed as an emotional companion robot. It comes with a range of emotions and can be friendly and warm or sometimes grumpy. In short, it will keep you engaged. It can even play games if you need and can interact with your smart home devices

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too. Buddy comes with an open platform and can be upgraded and upscaled. Behind its cheerful and sweet little face, Buddy is your personal assistant, watches over your home, entertains your children and interacts with your smart home connected devices, among many other services. As a real companion, Buddy walks around your house like a pet. Buddy is not just a friendly presence in the home, he is a real Swiss army knife that has many other really useful features.

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Neon Samsung-backed Megastar Labs introduced ‘Neon’, a digital CGI avatar that users can interact with, at the CES 2020. It can serve in the customer service department as a receptionist or can be used in the entertainment industry. It is the first synthetic human being, a virtual avatar of an AI that may speak and sympathize like genuine human beings, according to the company CEO, Pranav Mistry. NEONs will not be giving weather updates or answering queries and doing tasks like Siri or Alexa. Instead, the robots will be like friends and partners with whom you have a narrative dialogue. It can recollect conversations and interact forthwith. Megalabs debuted 5 Neons at the CES 2020—a yoga instructor, a banker, a K-pop star, a news anchor, and a fashion model. They can chat in any language. They are still in early-stage development and will be released later.

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Digit US startup Agility Robotics has built Digit. It is an industrial bipedal robot. Ford bought two Digits for augmenting its last-mile package delivery systems. It intends to use robots to deliver packages to customer doorsteps. Digit is able to navigate environments with the help of LIDAR and other sensors. It can carry weights of unto 18 kilograms in its arms. Agility Robotics says Digit can be used in logistics, telepresence, stock moving and inventorying, and industrial inspection. Digit can do some functions autonomously but still needs some human

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intervention for navigation. Agility Robotics will be producing a small number of Digit units and may increase production in 2021, depending on the response it gets.

The ostrict-like robot could be the future of bidepal humanoid pizza deliveries

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Romeo It is a humanoid assistant robot aimed at the elderly. Aldebaran Robotics of France and Softbank developed it in collaboration. It is designed to open doors, climb stairs, and reach for objects. It can make life easier for the elderly by doing simple tasks, playing games, and interactions. The robot is undergoing continuous improvements with technological advances. Maybe in the future, we will see a more robust elderly assistant robot. According to Rodolphe Gelin, Director of Research at Aldebaran, Romeo could very well improve the social life of residents in retirement homes: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Romeo can compare information provided by different elderly residents in a retirement home, about a film or a TV programme for example, and encourage them to meet each other.â&#x20AC;?

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The Microchip in Existence:

Microchip over the years By: Anna Verasai

A microchip is a mini micro tech, and in words of its world, even smaller things can lead to significant creations. A chip is one such thing, like with the Intel 8088 microprocessor, which created a technological uprising. A microchip is smaller than a fingernail in size and comprises of computer circuitry that is known as Integrated Circuit (IC). The invention of the IC is one of the significant devices in the history of humankind. The pioneers famous inventing the microchip technology includes Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce.

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What Is a Microchip? A microchip is made from semiconducting material like silicon or germanium. The chips are used to construct the logic parts of a computer, also known as the computerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s microprocessor, for use in computer memory, which is also called RAM chips. A microchip is a group of interconnected electronic parts like transistors, resistors as well as capacitors that are formed into a small, wafer-like thin disk. There have been multiple microchips that were created and wrote history. Some had a cutting-edge design, some futuristic, some out of the box- but all these gave humanity much technological advancement and created a new dimension altogether.

Some of the best microchips in existence that changed the world include:

Fairchild Semiconductor

A741 Op-Amp

This microchip was designed and created by Dave Fullagar in the year 1968. It is the successful predecessor of LM 101 IC, with the sole difference of the two being the incorporation of a 30pF internal compensation capacitor that was added in 741 IC. But, this incorporation made the IC an evergreen chip and is still in use and manufactured worldwide. This chip is used for planar epitaxial processes and mostly in integrators, summing amplifiers, high voltage follower, and other regularly used applications.

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Signetics NE555 Timer The 555 timer IC is a microchip used in timers, pulse generation devices, and oscillator appliances. It worked as a timer or oscillator and became the best seller in analog semiconductors devices, wending up in use in kitchen appliances, various toys, and spacecraft essentials, among others. The microchip was Introduced in the year 1972 by Signetics, and it is still widely used because of the low price, ease of usage, and stability qualities. The chip is presently used by companies dealing with bipolar and in low-powered CMOS technological devices. The 555 has emerged as the most popular microchip manufactured

Mostek MK4096 4-Kilobit DRAM The Mostekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 4-kilobit DRAM microchip introduced a major revolution it addressed multiplexing. The chip uses the same micro pins to access the rows and columns located in the memory through the multiplexing process in the signals. This resulted in the chip requiring fewer pins, and the memory density increased gradually. The 4096, as well as its successors, ruled the DRAM for years.

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MOS Technology 6502 Microprocessor The microchip 6502, which was an 8-bit microprocessor developed by the MOS Technology, became the core brain for computers like Apple II, Commodore PET as well as BBC Micro. It was also used in gaming systems like Nintendo as well as Atari. The 6502 can single-handedly make the price of other processors drop and also led the launch of the PC revolution. There are specific embedded systems that still use this chip.

Texas Instruments TMC0281 Speech Synthesizer

Texas Instruments TMS32010 Digital Signal Processor

This was the first single-microchip speech synthesizer embedded in the Texas Instrumentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Speak & Spell learning toy game. Developed in the year 1978, these microchips continued to be developed and sold for years, though the speech department was dissolved in late 2001. In 2001, TI sold the microchip line to Sensory, which further discontinued it in late 2007.

Texas Instruments created the TMS32010 digital signal processor chip. It was the fastest microchip and can compute a multiply calculation in 200 nanoseconds! The microchip can also execute instructions from two applications, the on-chip ROM and off-chip RAM. On its launch, the chip sold at $500 per piece with 1000 units.

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Intersil ICL8038 Waveform Generator This microchip was an IC designed to generate sine, square, and triangular waveforms. This method is based on bipolar monolithic technology. The microchip is a voltage control backed oscillator and can produce frequencies of anything between a millihertz and 100kHz. The chip has been discontinued for use by Intersil in the year 2002.

Acorn Computers ARM1 Processor Acorn Computers created this 32-bit microchip named Acorn RISC Machine, or the ARM. The ARM was small in size, needed low power, and was easy to program. In the year 1990, Acorn launched its ARM division, and the ARM creation became the pioneering 32-bit embedded processor. More than 10 billion ARM cores have been used till now in gadgets like iPhone by Apple.

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Chips & Technologies AT Chip Set By the year 1984, when IBM launched the 80286 AT line of PCs, IBM was already the leader in desktop technology. But the Big Blueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plans were foiled a small company named Chips & Technologies, located in California. C&T introduced five chips that were the duplicate functionality of premier AT motherboard that worked with the use of around 100 chips. To ensure the five chips were compatible with IBM PCs, engineers at C&T played games for weeks. The C&T chips led Acer to launch cheaper PCs and also the invasion of different PC clones. Intel later bought C&T in the year 1997.

Kodak KAF-1300 Image Sensor The Kodak, which was launched in the year 1991, needed just one thing- a thumbnail-size microchip that will capture many images at a resolution of 1.3 megapixels. These images would be enough for a sharp 5-by-7-inch print. The chip, which is a two-phase charge-backed device, became the foundation for future CCD sensors, and it brought a digital photography revolution.

Toshiba NAND Flash Memory Masuoka-san of Toshiba engaged four engineers in the year 1980 to handle a project of designing a microchip that can store enormous data and would also be affordable. The team introduced an EEPROM variation, which featured an efficient memory cell comprising a single transistor. During that period, the EEPROM required two transistors

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each cell. In the year 1984, Masuoka-san presented a paper on the design at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting held in San Francisco. This led Intel to start the development of a flash memory worked on NOR logic gates. In the year 1988, Intel launched the 256-kilobit microchip that is used in vehicles, massive computers, and various mass-marketing items. This took Toshiba to consider Masuokaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design. He launched the flash chip powered on NAND technology. The microchip gave substantial storage capacities, and the first NAND flash fro Toshiba hit the market. With this microchip, digital photography became a booming industry, and Toshiba emerged as the key player in the market. Presently, NAND flash is used in different gadgets like cellphones, digital cameras, music systems, and USB drives.

Microchip Technology PIC 16C84 Microcontroller The PIC 16C84 was developed by Microchip, which incorporated a different kind of memory called the EEPROM. This is for the electrically erasable and programmable ROM and doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need UV light to be successfully erased. The 16C84 is used in smart cards, various remote controls, and wireless car keys. Around 6 billion units of the microchip have been sold so far. The chip has been used in things like the industrial controllers, uncrewed good aerial vehicles, digital pregnancy scans, chip-controlled fireworks, LED led jewelry, as well as in a septic-tank monitor that is named Turd Alert.

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IBM Deep Blue 2 Chess Chip Deep Blueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s microchip comprised of 1.5 million transistors that are successfully arranged into a functional block look like generator logic array. These chips together in the processor would churn through around 200 million chess positions each second.

Transmeta Corp. Crusoe Processor The Crusoe is a group of microchip processors that is developed by Transmeta and was introduced in the year 2000. Instead of an instruction backend architecture, Crusoe runs a different software abstraction layer or better a virtual machine that is known as the Code Morphing Machine or the CMS. The CMS converts the machine coding instructions into well-read native instructions for the processor.

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Coming of Age of Short Video Format Social Apps By: Priya Versai

Video sharing apps are shaping the culture of our future generations. Digital technology has seeped into our everyday life, and the next generation is building a network by communicating through digital tech, and video sharing is a big part of it. YouTube started the trend but a more hep, shorter format, allowing users to edit, format, and post 15- second videos is TikTok. Rivaling the popularity stakes are newbie competitors like Byte, Fireworks, Dougyi, and Reel.

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The video-sharing revolution was started by YouTube and later Vine. These apps are building celebrities, stars, and entrepreneurs who are determining a new way of doing business. If you are tech, savvy, have a bright idea, and are talented, then you can cut out the agents and PR companies and go direct to the public with the product, talent, or service and wait for the magic to happen. If you want your creative juices to be appreciated, then that is fine too. You get an instant audience, which can grow into hundreds of thousands in no time. YouTube is one such free app. But its appeal is different from the short format apps like Snapchat and TikTok. It is Facebook to TikTokâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Instagram. The short format videos have a younger demographic, they are meant for the new-gen, the determiners of future culture, and the most sought after consumers by brands and companies.

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Tiktok TikTok, launched in 2017, has been downloaded more than a billion times. It is owned by Bytedance, a company based in China, valued at more than 75 billion dollars. It recently got a 3 billion dollar investment from Softbank. The popular social content-sharing platform is topping both the Apple Store (#1) and Google Play (#2). TikTok is populated with 15-second videos of mostly young people lip-syncing to popular songs, popular film clips, and doing silly, funny stunts. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a social network with an impressive suite of video-editing tools and AR filters. TikTok uses AI and machine learning, along with humans, to curate organic videos based on your browsing and choices. It is aggressively investing in Artificial Learning and Machine Learning. It reportedly has more monthly users than

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Twitter or Snapchat. The company is focusing on the U.S., Japan, and India, which is its biggest market. The number of smartphone use has swelled in India, and TikTok now has two hundred million users there.

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Vine Vine was the harbinger of innovative, creative short videos launched in 2012 and was bought off by Twitter the same year later. Vine created celebrities who started big businesses around it. Vine stars inked deals with major brands. But the service floundered after the initial euphoria of creativity. The problem was that the appâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s graph flattened out after an initial rise. The people making content for the app were not increasing though the viewers were. Other reasons were: the 6-second gap was too short for the creators, and they moved on to the longer short form a.k.a Instagram. Twitter itself was not doing too well at the time and could not promote the app as it should have. It was also not popular with advertisers because of its short format.

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Byte Vine, it seems is dormant, not dead. Don Hoffman, the co-creator of Vine, launched the successor to Vine called Byte on January 24. It is available both on Android and iOS. Hoffman had been dropping hints about its launch since 2018 and has built quite a fan following for the much-awaited app. It was initially called V2. Byte also lets users create six-second looping videos. Users can upload content shot with the phone's camera or use the Byte camera. The app lets users create custom soundtracks to play over photos and GIFs. Once the app picks up, Hofmann intends to introduce a revenue-sharing mechanism to help creators get paid for their work. “We’re looking at all of those, but we’ll be starting with a revenue share + supplementing with our own funds. We’ll have more details about exactly how the pilot program will work soon,” Hofmann said in an interview

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to Techcrunch. The Byte Twitter account also talked of how “compensation creators is one important way we can support” both creativity and community. Hopefully, Byte will have learnt from its earlier experience, and Hoffman’s emphasis on monetization speaks for itself.

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Fireworks Fireworks, a video app, is a creation of California-based Loop Now Technologies and is attracting the attention of both Google and Weibo. Fireworks got a valuation of $100 million in its last funding round. A free smartphone app, Firework allows users to build 30-second apps to share. It also has original content of its own. It curates, organizes according to trends and popularity and like Tiktok, it organically appears on the followers' feeds based on choices using machine learning and human curators. It allows users to share and post viral videos on other platforms. There are weekly hashtag contests to promote related videos and creations in exchange for prize money or to fundraise for social causes. With Fireworks, Google will be able to expand its video-based platform. It already has YouTube, which has 1.9 billion users per

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month, making it the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest online video platform. YouTube advertisements earn 20 percent of the total advertising revenue for Alphabet. But with competitors like TikTok and Byte, which are capturing the younger demographics, Google also needs a foothold into the market.

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Douyin The Chinese avatar of TikTok, Douyin achieved 400 million users this year. It may surprise one, but the most popular content on the app are knowledge-based ones. 4.89 million “knowledge-based content videos” were shared on the app last year, Bytedance, the owner of the platform, claimed. And people who post dance and funny videos are all born in the 60s. This is in direct contrast to the younger demographic of such video makers in the West. According to eMarketer, Douyin already makes up 67.9% of China’s mobile social network users and 59% of smartphone users. “These figures will grow to 68.3% and 59.6%, respectively, in 2020,” it estimated.

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Reel Instagram is launching a video remix music feature called Reel to rival TikTok. At the moment, it is being released in Brazil only. Reel lets you make 15-second video clips set to music and share them as Stories. Instagram will leverage its popularity with users to promote the app. The intention is to hone its strategy in Brazil before launching it worldwide. “No two products are exactly the same, and at the end of the day, sharing video with music is a pretty universal idea we think everyone might be interested in using. The focus has been on how to make this a unique format for us.” said Instagram director of product management Robby Stein. The strategy is to use Instagram’s close friends and direct messaging features. Users will have access to the vast music collection of Facebook and make a video using video

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snippets set to tunes. Reel will come with many editing tools like time captions.

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Monetisation of the apps All these video-sharing apps work on advertisements and promotions and Hashtag trending. Viral video makers and celebrities attract brand promotions and advertisements, where they get a percentage based on the number of shares. TikTok is aggressive about cross-promotions and advertises on rival channels too. Brands advertise on the platforms through paid hashtag challenges that invite users to create content around sponsored ads, banner ads, etc. The apps use machine learning and AI to gather data on user behavior, which is a gold mine for brands and advertisers, who can then use the same for targeted advertising. Even political parties are interested in making their presence felt in these trending videos. TikTok held a special meeting in India to gauge how to help monetize the video platformâ&#x20AC;&#x153;They are in the process of launching a lot of new features through which they want to help creators make more money so that they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel like they are not getting

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their worth. If you are spending 10 hours a day creating content for the app, then you are not doing anything else, which means that you are not making money through any other means,â&#x20AC;? said a person who attended the meeting to the Economic Times.

Bottlenecks The sudden popularity of TikTok has put it in the eye of governments, who are concerned that young people are being exposed to inappropriate content. Similarly, there are security and privacy issues concerning the personal data it collects. Also, scaling up is another issue. How to keep innovating on the content and keep the user interested? There are many rival free apps in the market, which are good at copycatting or providing niche app making tools targeted at exclusive audiences.

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The events section divulges all up-and-coming events influencing the world of technology.

FEBRUARY 2020 IoT Evolution Expo IoT Evolution is the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s longest running event. It is here where you will meet with a worldwide community of technologists, strategists and business leaders to learn about the next phase of connected technologies that are driving consumer, enterprise and municipal applications. Join to hear about the business cases and solutions that impact bottom lines, create sustainability, and improve lives for consumers. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States

11 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 14 Feb

Mobile Growth Summit MGS20 is a two-day, developer, publisher, and marketer-focused conference in San Francisco where you can connect with and learn from mobile app and online marketing professionals. The lineup consists of dozens of industry leaders who are experts in engagement and retention, geo-specific strategies, loops, hypergrowth, AI, monetization, mobile gaming, UA, product and

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development, branding, inclusivity, business operations, VR/AR, wearables, and blockchain. With workshops, lectures, panels, and numerous opportunities for networking, MGS20 has everything you need to make 2020 a successful year for both you and your company!

12 – 13 Feb

Hotel Nikko San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States

Big Data & Analytics Summit Transform your business with big data, analytics, AI, and machine learning! The 6th Annual Big Data & Analytics Summit Canada is your opportunity to stay on top of emerging trends and developments and to source proven strategies from key North American big data players. Compare leading strategies to your own work and develop a blueprint for a data plan that truly works for your organization. Hear case studies about how to improve your business processes, drive revenues and improve customer loyalty with big data and analytics. Hyatt Regency Toronto, Toronto, Canada

12 – 13 Feb

DeveloperWeek DeveloperWeek 2020 is San Francisco’s largest developer conference & event series with dozens of week-long events including the DeveloperWeek 2020 Conference & Expo, 1,000+

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attendee hackathon, 1000+ attendee tech hiring expo, and a series of workshops, open houses, drink-ups, and city-wide events across San Francisco! San Francisco, California, USA 12 – 16 Feb

Mobile World Congress MWC is the largest mobile event in the world, bringing together the latest innovations and leading-edge technology alongside today’s most influential visionaries. Explore the potential of Limitless Intelligent Connectivity at MWC as industry influencers share their experiences and vision for the future of innovation. Fira de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

24 – 27 Feb

RSA Conference Be part of a conversation that has the power to change the world. Join top cybersecurity leaders and a dedicated community of peers as we exchange the biggest, boldest ideas that will help propel the industry forward. Get access to expert-led sessions, thoughtprovoking keynotes, in-depth trainings and tutorials, groundbreaking innovation programs, state-of-the-art product demos and countless networking opportunities. Moscone Center, San Francisco, California, USA 24 – 28 Feb

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MARCH 2020 Microsoft WSL Conference WSLConf is a community-initiated event on all things Windows Subsystem for Linux and WSL-related. Two days of hands-on workshops, presentations, and networking events for developers on WSL. Microsoft Reactor, Microsoft Main Campus, Redmond, Washington, USA

10-11 Mar

SaaStr Annual 2020 Once a year, 15,000+ SaaS executives, founders, and VCs come together for the SaaStr Annual, the largest non-vendor SaaS conference on the planet. San Jose McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, California, USA 10-12 Mar

SXSW Conference Featuring a variety of tracks that allow attendees to explore whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next in the worlds of film, culture, music, and technology, SXSW proves that the most unexpected discoveries happen when diverse topics and people come together. With one unified conference spanning 22 tracks of programming, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find more opportunities for networking, learning, and discovery than ever before this March 13-21.

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Austin, Texas, USA

13-21 Mar

Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) brings the game development community together to exchange ideas, solve problems, and shape the future of the industry across five days of education, inspiration, and networking. Attendees include programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, and business leaders. San Jose McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, California, USA 16-20 Mar

MITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s EmTech Digital MIT Technology Review returns to the West Coast for its signature conference on artificial intelligence, hosting leaders from academia, enterprise, and government as we examine amazing advances in AI and explore the most pressing AI adoption issues of today. This year's program provides practical, technical and ethical guidance on deploying AI now. We are moving the conversation beyond "What are the opportunities and threats of AI?" to "How do we improve our lives and businesses with AI â&#x20AC;&#x201C; technically, legally and ethically?" The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, California, USA

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APRIL 2020 Google Cloud Next Google is bringing together some of the brightest minds in tech for 3 days of networking, learning, and collaboration. Experience the magic of Google Cloud Next alongside IT professionals, developers, executives, and Google experts. Moscone Center, San Francisco, California, USA 6-8 Apr

MAY 2020 IBM Think Acquire hands-on experience with the latest advancements in open technologies from hybrid multicloud to data and AI â&#x20AC;&#x201C; then meet the luminaries who are using them to transform our lives. Think isn't a single conference for thousands of people. It's thousands of curated conferences in one. San Francisco, California, USA

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