Aether

Subway and GenZ partner to create the EV Charging Oasis of the Future.

Taking EV charging stations beyond just a plug, creating engaging service environments that include green spaces, playgrounds, picnic tables, wifi, restrooms etc.

"As part of a multi-year plan to rollout the Subway Oasis, smaller-format, fast EV charging stations will be piloted at select, new or newly remodeled restaurants across the U.S., starting in 2023."



https://www.genz.com/subway-oasis

Directory of AI tools for designers

"We're on a mission to make Artificial Intelligence more accessible for designers

Other sites overwhelm you with bloated options. AI Design Resource curates its contents with care. So you can quickly access to the best AI Design Resources and enhance your design workflow"

Curated collection of AI tools, AI Trends & AI courses Explore our wide range of resources to streamline your workflow and create impactful designs

Open sourcing AudioCraft: Generative AI for audio made simple and available to everyone.

Meta released Audiocraft - generative tool for Audio. The tool contains three different models, MusicGen (text to music), AudioGen (text to audio) and EnCodec (decoder to enable better music generation).



https://ai.meta.com/blog/audiocraft-musicgen-audiogen-encodec-generative-ai-audio/

FENDER'S FIRST EVER RETAIL STORE ‘FENDER FLAGSHIP TOKYO’

Fender Flagship Tokyo is the Fender's first-ever retail store, offering a full range of instruments, brand-new fashion line and events space.



https://www.fender.com/ja-JP/fender-flagship-tokyo-en.html

Good reads to checkout when getting started with experience design for XR...

UX for XR

Defines, identifies, and analyzes UX practices for XR environments and reviews techniques and tools for prototyping and designing XR experiences. Good primer on XR and technologies involved. Collection of practical examples.

https://www.amazon.ca/UX-Experience-Strategies-Immersive-Technologies/dp/1484270193

The VR Book: Human-Centered Design for Virtual Reality

Guide to designing and developing virtual reality (VR) experiences centred around human needs and interactions.

https://www.amazon.ca/VR-Book-Human-Centered-Virtual-Reality/dp/1970001127

Waymo bringing its robotaxi service to Austin

Austin, Texas, will become Waymo's fourth commercial market, after Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.



Via TechCrunch

Waymo is bringing its robotaxi service to Austin | TechCrunch Waymo plans to launch a robotaxi service in Austin -- putting the company once again in direct competition with rival Cruise.

Shopify Reveals AI Suite, Business Credit Card, Dropshipping in Latest Showcase

"Shopify has revealed several new products and updates for its merchants, including an AI suite, business credit card, and dropshipping-like capabilities as part of its 2023 Summer Editions."

via BetaKit

Shopify reveals AI suite, business credit card, dropshipping-like feature in 2023 Summer Editions Ottawa’s retail tech giant Shopify has revealed several new products and updates for its merchants including an AI suite, business credit card, and dropshipping capabilities as part of its 2023 Summer Editions.

Developing reliable AI tools for healthcare

"New research proposes a system to determine the relative accuracy of predictive AI in a hypothetical medical setting, and when the system should defer to a human clinician."

Via Google DeepMind

Developing reliable AI tools for healthcare We’ve published our joint paper with Google Research in Nature Medicine, which proposes CoDoC (Complementarity-driven Deferral-to-Clinical Workflow), an AI system that learns when to rely on predictive AI tools or defer to a clinician for the most accurate interpretation of medical images.

AI-Powered Beauty Tech Reboots Sephora, Shanghai

"Trading on advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) to improve its in-store tech, French beauty retailer Sephora’s new Shanghai store incorporates AI-assisted product matching and advanced ingredient and efficacy information to upgrade its Singapore-based Store of the Future format."

via Stylus



https://stylus.com/retail-brand-comms/ai-powered-beauty-tech-reboots-sephora-shanghai

Researchers’ app could help people with visual impairments navigate the NYC subway.

Designed and developed by researchers at the Tandon School of Engineering and the Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, the Commute Booster app is a platform that helps people with visual impairments better navigate the subway system in the busy city.

The app uses the smartphone camera to recognize signs along the route in order to properly guide users to their destination and dismiss any nonessential signs.

via Engadget

Researchers’ app could help people with visual impairments navigate the NYC subway | Engadget Researchers at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering and Grossman School of Medicine have created an app to help people with visual impairments navigate New York City’s subway system.

Netherlands-based AI-guided “scent creation platform” EveryHuman’s collaboration with fellow Dutch lifestyle brand Moooi enables consumers to create their own room fragrances.

"Fragrance brands increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) to help consumers better navigate the saturated market of conventional scent profiles and appeal to those uncertain about what they want. Combining art, science and technology to create unique sensorial experiences, AI allows brands to break away from regular retail and deliver products that better reflect diverse personalities and styles."

Via Stylus



https://stylus.com/beauty/advancing-algorithmic-fragrance-discovery

XR Association and XR Access launch new accessibility focused site - XRACCESSABILITY.GITHUB.IO

XR Access is a community committed to making virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (XR) accessible to people with disabilities

https://xraccess.org/

The XR Association promotes the dynamic growth of the XR industry which includes virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed-reality, and future immersive technology.

https://xra.org/

Access accessibility project on Github

https://github.com/XRAccessibility/xraccessibility.github.io