From providing better ways to fight fraud to delivering smarter customer service, high-tech hardware and software providers are also using these advancements to pioneer new ways to make high-tech interactions more human. Biometrics-enabled solutions (e.g. those sporting voice and retina scanners) provide a faster and more foolproof means of accessing electronic devices and physical locations than PIN numbers and keycards. But they also allow for more intelligent, automated, and rapid exchanges of all kinds, and vast improvements to the way in which individuals and organizations communicate.

Since 2017, the self-driving technology company Aurora has been developing the Aurora Driver, a platform made up of software, hardware and data services to allow a vehicle to drive itself.  Development includes compensating for the long-tail phenomena, to enable self-driving vehicles to better recognize and react to the unknown hazards on the roads and make these cars as safe as possible for occupants of the vehicle, surrounding vehicles and their passengers, and pedestrians.
 

Here’s my 2019 end-of-year social media rankings, my own two cents about its usefulness — or lack thereof — for tech businesses. Have a thought? Share it with me on your favorite social media platform.

As legacy media companies seek innovative startups leveraging new creative tools, analysts expect takeovers and overhauls in both the production and distribution sides of the industry. There will be more mergers and acquisitions, especially within the revived “SiliWood” — Silicon Valley and Hollywood players — and among content and hardware companies.

New advancements in IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and analytics are offering new business opportunities in
the smart sports world. And for those who want to improve their golf, tennis, baseball or basketball performance
there’s a growing selection of connected sports gear. In 2018, the global sports market was valued at $1.36 trillion, according to Technavio, a sports market research firm. Meanwhile, the global smart sports market is expected to post a compound annual growth rate of over 37% during 2019-2023, according to Technavio.

CTA develops essential industry standards and recommended practices to enable interoperability between new products and existing devices. CTA has developed a vast number of industry standards that cover topics
such as television, augmented/virtual reality, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and wearables, but our most popular standard continues to be CTA-861, A DTV Profile for Uncompressed High-Speed Digital Interfaces. You may not know CTA-861, but chances are you’ve used it. The ubiquitous HDMI interface relies on CTA-861.

The CTA Foundation will host activities at CES 2020 highlighting the technologies that enable us to lead healthy and independent lives regardless of age or ability. As we look to this market opportunity, veteran CES attendees talked about the importance of accessibility

The gig economy is here to stay. It’s cheaper, more convenient and a better experience. Take a look at Airbnb,
which has six million listings in 190 countries and 81,000 cities. By contrast, Marriott operates 7,000 properties
with one million rooms in 130 countries. Airbnb has grown six times larger than Marriott in one tenth the time.

CTA recently hosted its First Small Business Workforce Forum, a day-long summit on hiring and retention strategies to help small tech companies remain competitive in this unprecedented labor market.

Boolean Girl Tech Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Ingrid Sanden and her partners, Brian Moran and
Sarah Eastman, have developed a self-contained computer and engineering kit which teaches girls how to code and build electronics through play. i3 sat down with Sanden to learn more about Boolean Girl Tech and their first
product, the Boolean Box.

i3 speaks to Meg Whitman, CEO of Quibi, a new Hollywood-based shortform streaming startup.

Consumer technology vendors are increasingly turning to biometrics for authentication and security. Biometrics measure the unique physiological characteristics of a given individual to verify his or her identity.

To enable future self-driving cars and today’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), automakers have been outfitting vehicles with a growing set of sensors as well as embedded cloud connectivity. 

Focused ultrasound (FUS) uses ultrasonic energy to target tissue deep in the body without incisions or radiation. An outpatient treatment, FUS causes minimal discomfort, leaves no scars and involves only short recovery times. Its overall costs are also usually less than other treatments on the market today.

How tech is changing the way people hit the road, air and seas.

The CTA Foundation has set up a service through iDonate that now allows companies to turn that surplus inventory into a donation that creates positive attention and supports people in need.

Last week CTA hosted CES Unveiled New York to get media and influencers excited about CES 2020, CTA’s annual trade show that features the latest technologies and industry leaders in consumer tech.

As the gaming industry prepares for a new generation of consoles, it is transforming how people engage with games, relying more on online gaming services and less on physical gaming discs. 

How can business leaders fight back when the number of apps, transactions and online exchanges that need to be protected is skyrocketing daily? The answer lies in adopting a simple philosophy called Less Than Zero Trust thinking – where the first rule of cybersecurity is to trust no one, and the second is to not even trust yourself.

5G, the next-generation network now being rolled out, is 100 times faster than 4G and can support diverse requirements for latency, throughput, capacity and availability, enabling brand new services for smart cities, smart homes, wearables, connected cars, health care services and a plethora of IoT functions.