Category: Event

CES 2016: Here Comes A Human-Carrying Autonomous Drone

Posted on by Lab Team

Last year at CES, a couple of drone-makers wowed the crowd with autonomous drones. But this year, self-driving drones are no longer that surprising – until EHANG came out with a giant autonomous drone that can fly one human passenger around without manual piloting.

The Chinese drone manufacturer yesterday unveiled its Ehang 184, an electric-powered drone can be fully charged in two hours, and fly for 23 minutes at sea level. Passengers can set a flight plan, and then only need to give two commands, “take off” and “land,” using a Microsoft Surface tablet mounted on its dashboard.

For more of the Lab’s CES coverage, click here.

Photo credit: Matt Lehrer

CES 2016: The Next Big Thing Conference On The Future Of Interfaces

Posted on by Richard Yao

As part of CNET’s “The Next Big Thing” conference series at CES 2016, the “Is Typing Dead?” session on Wednesday afternoon captured our attention because of its focus on debating what’s next in human-machine interaction.

The actual voice behind Siri, Susan Bennett, took stage at the beginning of the session, and hearing her talking in her highly recognizable “Siri voice” made for an oddly interesting experience. She told the audience a brief but funny recap about her involvement in the creation of Siri, kicking off this simulating session on what will come after typing and touchscreens in the continued evolution of digital interfaces.

The four-person panelists consisted of industry thought leaders on interface designs, including Wendy Ju from Stanford University’s Interaction Design Research unit, Pattie Maes from MIT Media Lab, Marcus Behendt from BMW’s user experience department, and Vlad Sejnoha, CTO of Nuance Communications. Together, they discussed the state of voice command and gesture control, and casted their predictions for the future of user interfaces.

Voice command has been taking off in recent years with the likes of Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, and as we have seen at this year’s CES, more and more devices has added support for voice command and will start talking with users. But because of the inherent ambiguity in natural languages, as MIT’s Maes pointed out, speech is not always the most efficient way of communications, and therefore will be relegated to controlling only certain applications.

Moreover, the panelists agreed that sometimes voice command may misunderstand user intent because it is not picking up on all the non-verbal cues we use in conversations. And it would become a much more powerful tool for human- computer interaction if it is combined with personal data to learn about user’s preference and interests.

Gesture control is also a UI trend that is growing in popularity, whether it’s X-box’s kinetic gaming features, or the in-car gesture control that Volkswagen just added to its Golf electric model. BMW’s Behrendt sees gesture control mostly as communication enhancement, while also reminding everyone that some gestures may vary from culture to culture, which hinders universal adoption. And the panelists agrees that the bottom line here is that gesture control should be intuitive and shouldn’t be like a sign language that users have to learn to use.

In addition, the panelists also quickly ran through some emerging technologies that may one day power mainstream digital interfaces, such as gaze control (commend with sight), proximity-based control (such as beacons triggering actions), as well as biometric-based control that responds to the changes in your physiological stats. While all these may still be decades away from ready for mass adoption, they nevertheless points to a future where our devices will no longer just passively waiting for our commands, but rather actively uses contextual data to anticipate our needs and serve us before we even lift a finger.

For more of the Lab’s CES coverage, click here.

CES 2016: Delphi To Bring Car To Car Connectivity To Aftermarket

Posted on by Lab Team

There has been a number of connected cars in market now, but soon your smart car will be able to talk with other cars as well, thanks to Delphi’s V2E™ “Vehicle to Everything” technology. Based in Gillingham, U.K., Delphi will be launching its industry-first Vehicle to Vehicles (V2V) tech on the 2017 Cadillac CTS, called Super Cruise.

Beside enabling cars exchange data for traffic planning and other real-time information, Dephi’s V2E technology will also enable  Vehicle to Pedestrians communications to allow drivers to send an alert to a pedestrian’s smartphone if they’re looking down at their devices and not watching the traffic. It can also communicate with traffic lights to anticipate the change of signals , as well as getting real-time road information to avoid blind corners.

For more of the Lab’s CES coverage, click here.

 

Header image courtesy of Delphi’s press release kit.

CES 2016:  Withings Go Brings E-Ink To Fitness Wearables

Posted on by Lab Team

As with last year, the CES has no shortage of wearables, especially the fitness trackers. Among this year’s new crops, Withings Go stands out with its simplistic design and a super-long battery life – it can go as long as eight months after a full charge, according to the company. The reason is can last that long is because instead of a battery-draining LCD display, it opts for E Ink, the kind of mono-color display that Kindle uses. It does what most activity trackers do, including step counts, calorie intake tracking, and measuring travelled distance. Selling at only $70, it makes a strong case for competing in the lower-end of the wearable market previously dominated by FitBit, who just unveiled at CES yesterday its first smartwatch Blaze that sells for $200.

For more of the Lab’s CES coverage, click here.

CES 2016: GM Introduces Chevrolet Bolt EV, An Affordable Long-Range Electric Car

Posted on by Lab Team

During its CES 2016 keynote session, GM CEO Mary T. Barra unveiled the Chevy Bolt EV on stage. It is a compact fully electric car with a promised range of over 200 miles after a single full charge. More importantly, it will be selling for around $30,000 after tax incentives, making it an affordable alternative for Tesla’s Model S offering. The Chevy Bolt EV will go into production this year, and will also feature a 10.2-inch touchscreen on its center dashboard that runs GM’s MyLink infotainment system.

For more of the Lab’s CES coverage, click here.

Header image courtesy of Chevrolet’s press release.

CES 2016: Samsung’s Smart Fridge Ushers In A New Era For Home Appliances

Posted on by Lab Team

On Tuesday, Samsung introduced a new “Family Hub Refrigerator” during its press conference at CES 2016. Easily the highlight of the event, the new smart fridge comes with a 21.5-inch touchscreen built in. It can display your family photos, show your calendars, and even has a TV-mirroring feature that can let you stream your Samsung TV content right to your fridge door. The fridge also comes with 3 cameras so you can remotely check your stockings inside via a smartphone app while you’re in the shopping aisles.

Moreover, the refrigerator also comes with a built-in function for grocery shopping. Working with MasterCard’s Groceries app, it will allow users to shop for groceries right on the touchscreen on its door, truly combining the connectivity of smart home devices with the convenience of ecommerce.

For more of the Lab’s CES coverage, click here.

Header image courtesy of Samsung’s press release video.

 

CES 2016: The Oculus Rift Finally Reveals Pricing And Ship Date

Posted on by Lab Team

Back in May last year, we learned that Oculus was getting ready to ship its first consumer-facing VR headset in early 2016. Now, we have a ship date and pricing. The Facebook-owned company just announced at CES that its Oculus Rift headsets will cost $599 and start shipping on March 28th.

We here at the Lab are always looking out for new developments in the VR space, and currently we have two VR headsets—an Oculus Rift and a Samsung Gear—ready for demo in the Lab. And of course, we have pre-ordered two more Oculus Rift headsets this morning to add to our collection. VR is unlikely to hit mass adoption in the next few years, but it is increasingly becoming a great tool for brands to employ in event activations. A number of brands, such as Marriott Hotel, Birchbox, JCPenney, and Target had already started developing their own branded VR content to entertain and connect with their customers.

For more of the Lab’s CES coverage, click here.

 

CES 2016: Netflix Goes Truly Global, Adds 130 New Countries

Posted on by Richard Yao

The lab attended the opening keynote of CES 2016 featuring Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, who announced near the end of his presentation that this morning Netflix launched in 130 new global markets, including some major ones such as India and Russia. With this radical expansion, Netflix’s service is now available in almost every country in the world, with only China as a conspicuous hold-out.

Reports have also noted that Netflix has stricken a partnership with South Korea-based TV manufacturer LG to include its subscription as a prepaid service in LG’s new smart TVs, as part of Netflix’s global expansion plan. But there was curiously no mention of this partnership during the keynote presentation. Mr. Hastings also shared a few first-look trailers for some of its upcoming new series, including Baz Luhrmann’s hip hop musical The Get Down and new British royal drama The Crown, which focuses on the early life of Queen Elizabeth.

During the keynote, Reed Hastings proudly recapped Netflix’s rapid development into today’s leading OTT content provider, citing stats such as 70 million household users clocking up a total of 42.5 billion viewing hours for 2015. As a streaming services, Netflix’s “all-episodes-at-once” approach gives viewers more control in their content consumption and ushered in a new on-demand “binge-watching” era. TV is now no longer linear and restricted to a programming grid, but instead full of choices and quality content free to be consumed on any devices. In this new era of Internet TV, brands needs to start figuring out new ways to reach today’s audiences, especially with product placement or sponsorships in ad-free environments like Netflix.

For more of the Lab’s CES coverage, click here.

Event Recap: “Meet Link” LinkNYC Media Event

Posted on by Lab Team

On Thursday afternoon, IPG Media Lab attended a media event for LinkNYC, an ambitious project that will turn old payphone sites in New York City into a network of state-of-the-art kiosks that offer free services like high-speed Wi-Fi, phone calls, and device charging, along with outdoor advertising displays. Following the debut of the newly designed “Link” kiosk on stage, the event featured a panel discussion on the marketing potential and the social utilities this program could bring to the five boroughs. Moderated by Miko Rahming, SVP of Innovation/Creative at Intersection, the panel consisted of Susan Seller, Head of Design at Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fred Dixon, CEO of NYC & Company, and David Rosenberg, a managing partner here at the Lab.

During the discussion, all three panelists commended the social good this program can bring. Seller singled out the “de-cluttering” effect LinkNYC will have on the city’s appearance by removing old payphone booths, a sentiment echoed by Rosenberg. Dixon, on the other hand, highlighted the “profound effect” that LinkNYC will have on people that don’t have access to high-speed internet, as it provides them with basic connectivity and services and helps the city bridge the digital divide.

Moreover, the panelists discussed the marketing potential of the program. They agreed that, as a dynamic digital experience supported by ad-serving platform and technology, LinkNYC would allow for creative flexibility, real-time ad delivery, and data-driven targeting. It will offer mass connectivity and city services via digital touchpoints, while also enabling brands to reach millions of New Yorkers and visitors with their messages. As Rosenberg aptly pointed out, this program taps into the ongoing trend of brands “starting to move into the space of providing utility and service in order to earn a place in consumer’s life.” After all, when brands provide real value in addition to their ads, consumers would be much less likely to block them out.

Overall, the consensus among the panelists seemed to be that, LinkNYC represents a new breed of hyperlocal ad platform that blends social utilities and branded content, heralding the future of digital outdoor advertising. The program is set to launch later this year, and brands looking to connect with New Yorkers on the go should definitely take this innovative, data-driven OOH ad space into consideration.

Event Recap: IPG Mediabrands’ Advertising Week Panel On Viewability

Posted on by Lab Team

This morning, IPG Mediabrands held an Advertising Week event to tackle one of the hottest topics in the ad industry today, viewability. The event consisted of a presentation of the Lab’s new research results and a panel discussion featuring five industry insiders.

Kara Manatt, our VP of Consumer Research Strategy, kicked off the event with a presentation of  never-before-seen research conducted by the IPG Media Lab in partnership with our sister agencies Cadreon and Magna Global, along with Integral Ad Science. In her presentation, Manatt explained how the new viewability study rigorously tested standard banner, rich media, and auto-play video ads from two brands representing different industry verticals and shared some key findings from the research. The widely accepted MRC standard for viewability, as the research shows, is not a magic threshold for improved ad recall, but rather “a stepping stone for ad effectiveness.” This means even some impressions below the MRC standard have impact on viewers. For example, the research finds that while the MRC standard states video ads need to have at least 50% in view for 2 seconds to count as viewable, our study found that for significant impact auto-play video ads with audio on only need 25% in view for 2 seconds.

Following the insightful presentation, Suzanne Vranica of the Wall Street Journal moderated a panel discussion featuring Gail Horwood from Johnson & Johnson, Mitchell Weinstein from Magna Global, Zach Putman from ABC Television, Ian Wallin from Integral Ad Science, and Howard Mittman from GQ. The panelists talked about a wide range of issues surrounding ad viewability, including vendor standards, ad fraud, and different perspectives on finding solutions for viewability issues. “Viewability is not an entry point, it should be an exit point,” Gail Horwood remarked, pointing out the importance of focusing on delivering ads in an impactful, viewable manner. Mitchell Weinstein concurred by saying that “for agencies, viewability is really about only paying for the ads that are seen.” Overall, the panelists agreed that viewability is a crucial issue that the digital ad industry needs to overcome. While achieving 100% viewability is practically impossible, striving for better viewability via developing new standards and eliminating fraudulent ads is not the ultimate goal, but rather a means for clearing the path to reach the consumer audience.