Automation and transportation have come together in the air in the form of drones. On land, many tech companies and automakers are working on self-driving cars. Although we don’t hear quite as much about is the application of the technology to transport over water, we may see it become a reality within just a few years.
Back in 2014, Rolls Royce presented its concept for an autonomous ship. The BBC report quoted Oskar Levander, Rolls-Royce's vice president of innovation, engineering and technology, "Now it is time to consider a road map to unmanned vessels of various types. Sometimes what was unthinkable yesterday is tomorrow's reality.” However, the law had not yet caught up to that reality. Simon Bennett, a representative of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), ascertained that international law still did not allow for crewless ships. He told the BBC that a legal change "would require a complete overhaul of the regulatory regime.” There are those working on achieving that change. The BBC report referred to an EU-funded project working toward ships that could function without crews. Called Maritime Unmanned Navigation through Intelligence (MUNIN). In addition to making it technically feasible, MUNIN aims to work out the necessary changes in legislation to allow autonomous ships to function. It envisions “highly advanced navigation systems” that would analyze conditions toavert accidents. As in the case of some of these sensor systems engineered to enable autonomous functions in cars, the plan is to apply the technology even for ships that are driven by people, as they could “support the officer of the watch.” That in itself could prove very valuable in light of the “human error” blamed for the recent collision of the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship. Read more in Automation to Deliver Sea Change in Cargo Transport |
Google Gives Marketers VR Building Blocks
Google Gives Marketers VR Building Blocks
Google wants you to experience and build up VR. To that end, it has not only introduced a program and tool for YouTube but come up with new formats for it to make it particularly attractive to marketers. It also reveals how VR can be an effective tool for engagement geared toward persuasion, which is nothing less than the essence of marketing.
In a blog entitled Experimenting with VR Ad formats at Area 120, Google explained that in that inhouse startup incubator, which is designated for innovative exploration, they've turned their attention to “experimenting with what a native, mobile VR ad format might look like.”
Bearing in mind that users want their VR experiences to be simple to set up, they came up with the idea of a cube that gives users the ability to choose if they want “to engage with it and then see a video ad.” The video would play either in response to a touch or even a look and can then be closed.
The explanation of how it works is packed into this gif:
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