CES 2019: Holoride looks to revolutionize in-car entertainment with VR

Trying to think about mixing virtual reality and real-life car rides seem like a recipe for disaster. Just thinking about it makes us slightly nauseous. But this is what Holoride and Audi (which has spun out the company from its operations) hope to change. The two offered an in-car VR experience at CES in partnership with Disney. Holoride and Audi let tech and motoring journalists try out a VR experience called Marvel’s Avengers: Rocket’s Rescue Run. The concept is to change in-car entertainment with the passengers inside an Audi e-tron strapped into a VR headset. The unique thing is the content replicates the movement of the car. So, if the car speeds up, so does the ship. If it turns, then the perspective shifts, too.

Holoride plans to release a software development kit so that developers and other automakers can create an experience of their own. The SDK will serve as the interface to the vehicle data and transfer those into virtual realities, allowing the developers to create games and movies that sync with the user’s motion in the car. According to Audi, even conventional movies, shows, or presentations can be viewed with less chance of motion sickness. The company aims to release VR entertainment on the market within the next three years using standard VR headsets for backseat passengers.

Source: Tech Crunch + VRFocus

CES 2019: Lenovo’s new 2-in-1 device has Echo Show capabilities

We knew a Lenovo-made tablet was coming with Echo Show capabilities. And now at CES the said device (or we should say devices) has made its debut. The Lenovo Smart Tab works both as an Android tablet and an Alexa Smart Display. You get the latter when you dock it with the included smart speaker dock. This feature is already available with Amazon’s own Fire tablets but in that iteration, you needed to buy the speaker dock separately. Lenovo, on the other hand, is bundling the dock with the tablet. The company is calling it a tablet first with Echo Show features as a nice bonus.

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CES 2019: Google introduces new Interpreter Mode to help translate conversations in real-time

The new Google Assistant feature that debuted at CES hopes to help bridge the communication gap between two people who speak different languages. Coming to Google-powered smart displays and smart speakers, there’s a new Interpreter Mode that turns the digital assistant into a real-time language translator. It’s available in 27 languages but we haven’t seen which ones yet. The demos we’ve seen online have translated conversations in German or Mandarin. In the demo, a concierge at Caesar’s Palace, one of the early beta testers of the feature, talks to a German “tourist” (which was a German-speaking Google employee) about finding show tickets. The concierge turned to the Google Home Hub beside him and prompted Google Assistant to go into German Interpreter Mode to have their conversation.

As the demos showed, the two can hold a conversation as interpreter translates their back and forth. It is going to be a bit stilted though as it takes a few seconds for Assistant to translate what’s being said. And it’s not always entirely accurate, but with the translated text showing up in the smart display, context clues can be picked up. This does show us the possibilities the technology offers for the hospitality business or even for any business owner who needs to converse with people who don’t speak their language. This feature for now is launching as a small pilot at few hotels including one in New York, another in San Francisco, and the aforementioned Caesar’s Palace in Vegas. It’ll be available only on the Google Hub, Google Home speakers and third-party Google Assistant displays.

Source: Wired

CES 2019: Harley-Davidson release more details about its electric motorcycle, opens preorders

Harley-Davidson’s highly anticipated electric motorcycle gets a bit of exposure at CES. The motorcycle manufacturer announced the LiveWire is now available for preorder and will be delivered to those who preorder later in the fall. It’s going to cost a pretty penny, though, at US$29,799. The electric bike is capable of going from 0 to 60mph in under 3.5 seconds and it requires no clutch or gear shifting, making it simpler for new riders. Harley says it can travel 110 city miles on a single charge, but the company didn’t specify how this translates on the highway. It can be charged from a standard household outlet with Level 1 charger and power or riders can visit public Level 3 DC Fast Charge stations for a quicker top-up. The bike has seven riding modes to choose from—four are standard and three are customizable.

It has a tiltable, colour touchscreen above the handlebar. The LiveWire also comes with a telematics system called H-D Connect, which has data on the bike’s vital stats such as battery charging, service reminders, and even tampering. These data can be sent to the owner via Harley’s connected app, making this the brand’s first mass-market, cellular-connected electric motorcycle. It comes in vivid black, yellow fuse, and orange fuse.

Source: Geek.com