Marketing on a whole new level

Marketing is becoming so advanced with new innovative technology, but marketers are going to a whole new level. Immersive Labs is taking advantage of the new found technology that is enabling advertisements to become more personal.
What if you passed by an advertisement and looked at it and then it adjusted to your likings? Yes that would probably be a little frightening to most people. Immersive Labs has created software that they attach to billboards that essentially “looks back at you”. This software can analyze:
• Age
• Gender
• Estimated attention span
• How many people your with
• How long you view the ad

Although it doesn’t know exactly who you are, the intelligent software basically says “what’s the probability that this person is a male or female?” It takes into account what the weather is like as well. Say for example that it was a very cold day outside and when you pass the billboard puts something up like “Hot Coffee just around the corner.” So the software gathers all of this data to put an advertisement together in this short period of time to attract you. CEO of Immersive Labs states that “It takes away the noise, you're not going to get irrelevant ads any more. You're going to get ads you actually want to see." Marketing has gone to a whole new level of reaching their target market.
So what makes this not so “freaky”? Well, the Immersive Labs CEO Jason Sosa says that the software only gathers anonymous information and only gathers external data. Who knows what the next years hold, or maybe even next year? Imagine with the fast pace technology what the possibilities could be.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/14/technology/immersive_labs_targeted_ads/index.htm

Security Threat Awareness

The use of technology in our everyday lives has become commonplace, and even essential for a vast majority of people. For businesses, the use of technology is critical. Without current technology businesses are at an extreme disadvantage, certainly within industry competition, as well as daily operations. Technology has the ability to create valuable competitive advantages, which are beneficial to the beholder and can be detrimental to competitors. While technological advances have created numerous opportunities, those advances have also created many threats for both businesses and individuals.

Businesses and individuals have become accustomed to technology, and dependent upon its many benefits. However, many users are not yet as familiar with the security threats that have been brought by new technology. Hackers are constantly inventing new ways to scam unsuspecting users, or steal valuable information from unprotected businesses. Security threats are not a new development; even before the infiltration of technology, businesses had to ensure that their important documents were secured from outside threats. While security programs for computers have become almost standard, users still do not fully understand how easily their information can be stolen.

Among users, there is not a lack of awareness to security threats, rather a general overestimation of what it means to be secure. In some situations, security programs create a false sense of security. Users are concerned with keeping their computers secure, but are not always careful with how they handle their personal information or how they provide their information over the Internet. The importance of security has escalated since the increase in smart mobile devices. Many users do not view security in the same manner for their smartphones as their computers or laptops.

For some users, smartphones have become more integrated into their daily routines than computers. Smartphones have become computers on the go for many people. On their mobile devices, users have the ability to shop, book reservations, and bank, which are just a few uses of personal information on these devices. Many smartphone users remain logged in to their social networking sites and email accounts on their phones. Also, smartphones store contact information for personal as well as business contacts, schedules, and a variety of other forms of personal information. Computer security awareness has increased among users; however, smartphone users need to be more vigilant in protecting their devices from security threats. Smartphone users can take simple measures to protect their devices such as using a password to lock their mobile devices or logging out of social networking sites instead of remaining constantly online. All consumers of technology need to be aware of the security risks associated with any electronic device accessing the Internet, rather than focusing only on the security risks associated with computers.


http://www.tomsguide.com/us/ios-android-security,review-1623.html

ROBOTS IN THE BUSINESS ASPECT

 

In today’s society robots are being more and more used. NASA has come up with a robot called Robonaut 2 or also known as R2. R2 weighs about 300 pounds and only consists of a torso, a head, and two arms. It was launched into space on the Discovery, which just so happens to be Discovery’s final launch. As of March 3, 2011, President Obama had called into the International Space Station wondering how the R2 was working but what he found out was that it still has not even been unpackaged onboard. GM believed that using the innovative machinery could contribute astronauts in risky space operations and possibly help automotive plants build safer vehicles faster.

GM came up with this robot to help humans in space to be more proficient and advanced. The Robot is programmed to work alongside humans in today’s society. Knowing this I don’t think that there will be anymore Neal Armstrong or any other human being in space, now it will be Robonaut 2. So eventually there will be no need for human astronauts to even be in space.

Now days automotive plants are starting to use robots instead of human. They have robots now that make each individual door frame. Also they have an assembly line for making the motor in each step. One of the most technological advanced robots is called the Unimate. The Unimate took hot die-castings from machines and which tact the frame of the car together in just a few minutes. Now robots in the automotive plants can assemble a whole car in about 90 hours.

Robots today have been blamed for killing thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs because you don’t have to pay them and they don’t have to take breaks. In Detroit there are so many jobs that have been lost due to the help and runnings of robots in automotive factories now. American companies need to install even more robots to remain competitive and keep additional jobs from fleeing to China, Mexico and other low-cost countries. American jobs are already competing against China now with all Wal-Mart’s business with China; that itself is already putting people out of jobs and shutting down factories. There is more than 1 million industrial robots in use worldwide, but only 20 percent of them are even used United States. Will this be safer to have robots build our cars or will it be another beginning of human lay-offs?