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Emergency dispatchers have a tough job assuring callers while trying to ask questions that could save the patient's life. But soon they could get backup from AI. Starting in 2016, dispatchers in Copenhagen began getting help from an artificial intelligence named Corti that understands the words and sounds during calls to recognize cardiac arrest, then prompts the emergency professional with the right questions to get a more accurate diagnosis. Corti helps out in other ways, too, like reminding to ask whoever's on the phone for the address of the incident and ensuring the ambulance en route is headed to the right place. But much of its value lies in refining its diagnosis by detecting background clues. In one incident, recounted by Fast Company , the dispatcher had concluded a man who'd fallen off the roof had broken his back. Corti heard a faint rattling, which fit the sound pattern of a patient attempting to breathe despite a stopped heart. While the AI was still in ...

You won't have to stay glued to NBC to watch all of its Winter Olympics coverage -- although it won't necessarily be the coverage you want. The network is offering a two-part PyeongChang preview series, Go For the Gold and Meet Team USA , that will be available on Netflix between January 15th and the end of the Olympics on February 25th. The episodes will explore the American team's athletes and their stories, including well-known competitors like Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White. The nature of the series and its limited availability says a lot about NBC's intent. It sees Netflix as a way to advertise its own coverage, rather than a complement that you can watch alongside (or even after) the Olympics themselves when they start on February 8th. That's not shocking given that NBC's bottom line will depend on its live coverage and daily summaries, but it suggests you won't see any thrilling recaps on third-party services any time soon. Source: Deadline via...

Mercedes-Benz's G-Class Wagon isn't changing for the future in the ways you might expect. Yet. From a preview event at Detroit's crumbling , historic Michigan Theater for the North American International Auto Show, chairman Dieter Zetche was joined onstage by Arnold Schwarzenegger to talk about the iconic SUV's improvements. Given where Schwarzenegger used to hold office -- California -- and his environmental bend, The Governator had a pressing question for Zetche: "What is the future [of Mercedes] in fossil fuels? Does this G Wagon eventually come out as an electric G Wagon?" He has the world's first one at home in Los Angeles, he said. Zetche's response was coy. Last year, the automaker announced that the future of Mercedes was all electric drivetrains. "Stay tuned," Zetche teased. And then Schwarzenegger gave Zetche a cowboy hat and the pair did a shot of schnapps. Other new bits for the SUV? An all new rear camera system, with two ...

While Nintendo's 'classic' consoles have soaked up much of the retro love lately, Sega fans do have something to look forward to. The last booth I stopped by at CES 2018 was one of my favorites, as Retro-bit showed off new officially-licensed accessories it's releasing for Sega consoles later this year, including (but not limited to) Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my hands on any of these controllers to see how they match up with the originals, but it's nice to see them upgraded with modern capabilities like USB and Bluetooth. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018. Source: Retro-bit via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2EGWAeg"

There's no doubt that smart speakers are selling like hotcakes , but how many people own them, exactly? Quite a few, according to NPR and Edison Research. They've published findings of a study which estimates that one in six Americans (16 percent) owns a smart speaker of some kind -- a huge amount if the study is precise, and a whopping 128 percent higher than a year earlier. About 7 percent of Americans reportedly bought at least one speaker between Black Friday (November 24th) and then end of 2017, with 4 percent of Americans having bought their very first speaker. Not surprisingly, Amazon still rules this fledgling market. The study indicates that 11 percent of Americans have one of Amazon's Echo speakers , while 4 percent have a Google Home of some kind thanks to its relatively late arrival. Just how people use their speakers is more complicated. About 66 percent of buyers plan to entertain others by streaming music, asking questions or playing games , while 64 pe...

One of the benefits of internet shopping for many consumers is not having to pay sales tax. But the Supreme Court has just agreed to hear South Dakota v. Wayfair , which may reverse the 1992 ruling that prevents state and local governments from requiring retailers to collect sales tax for online purchases. Bloomberg reports that states may have lost out on as much as $13 billion in 2017 because of the internet's functionally tax-free status, according to a Government Accountability Office report. The state of South Dakota decided to do something about it; its legislature passed a bill in 2016 that required any retailer with over $100,000 in sales per year to pay a 4.5 percent state tax on purchases. After the bill became law, the state turned to the courts to ask it to make the law constitutional. Online retailers WayFair, NewEgg and Overstock are opposed to the legislation. The companies state that, while Congress might pass a law supporting an online sales tax, the courts ar...

If you grew up watching American TV, there's a good chance you've seen at least a little bit of the hospital drama ER . But if you've wanted to watch it online, your legal options have been limited unless you've been willing to buy it from services like iTunes. However, it just got considerably easier... for some people, at least. Hulu has announced that it's now the first and only place where you can stream all 15 seasons of ER . If you want to see what George Clooney was doing before he became an A-list movie star (or directing Hulu originals ), you just have to fire up a web browser. Hulu hasn't said whether or not its exclusive is just for the US or applies worldwide -- we've asked the company if it can elaborate. If it's international in scope, that rules out ER streaming in most countries given that Hulu is virtually non-existent outside of the US and Japan. Either way, it's a coup for Hulu as it fights for exclusives that could give it a...

At its NAIAS 2018 preview event, Ford just dropped a few details about an electric vehicle it plans to release in 2020. The "Mach 1" is an all-electric performance SUV under development by Team Edison in Ford's recently-opened Corktown facility . And... that's pretty much all we know so far. Inspired by icons. Developed by #Ford Team Edison. Born in Detroit. A new all-electric performance SUV. Coming 2020. #FordNAIAS http://pic.twitter.com/DqFSRAtp8l — Ford Motor Company (@Ford) January 14, 2018 Source: Ford (Twitter) via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2DcAMuU"

If you're starting a pop group in Japan, where giant rosters and virtual superstars are par for the course, how do you stand out? By tying yourself to something trendy -- and in 2018, that means cryptocurrency. Meet Kasotsuka Shojo (Virtual Currency Girls), a J-pop group where each of the eight girls represents one of the larger digital monetary formats. Yes, you're supposed to cheer for bitcoin or swoon over ethereum (what, no litecoin?). The group played its first concert on January 12th, and naturally you had to pay in cryptocurrency to be one of the few members of the general public to get in. The group's first single, "The Moon and Virtual Currencies and Me," warns listeners about the perils of fraud and extols the virtues of good online security. And yes, there's a reason for the exceptionally timely theme. Katsosuka Shojo is promoting the idea that cryptocurrency isn't a "tool of speculation," but rather a means of creating a "...

The number of companies that sell true wireless earbuds has exploded in the last year. B&O, Bose, Sony and Samsung all joined the craze Bragi started back in 2014 . Thanks to a bill signed into law last year, some hearing aids and assistive audio devices will be available over-the-counter without the need for a prescription. Headphone companies are also using their tech to help people with hearing problems, especially those suffering from tinnitus. According to the CDC , around 50 million Americans suffer from some degree of tinnitus or ringing in their ears. The organization further explains that about 20 million of those people have a chronic issue, while around 2 million suffer from debilitating tinnitus -- and that's just in the US. The Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017 that was signed into law last August aims not just to make hearing aids more accessible, but to give people with mild-to-moderate hearing loss more options besides having to get a doctor's pr...

It's not just state officials who are investigating Hawaii's false alarm over a (thankfully non-existent) missile attack. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has confirmed that the regulator's investigation into the error is "well underway." While Pai shied away from making many definitive statements early on, he said that early findings suggested Hawaii didn't have "reasonable safeguards or process controls" to prevent a mistaken alert. Not surprisingly, Pai labeled the alarm as " absolutely unacceptable." It wasn't just that it triggered panic for the 38 minutes between the initial alert and the correction, according to the Chairman -- it's that this reduced confidence in the alert system and may have hurt its effectiveness in a real crisis. At this point, there isn't much debate as to what happened: an employee clicked the wrong box and sent a real alert by mistake, and there was no system in place to send an immediate correction. ...

US lawmakers have long worried about the security risks posed the alleged ties between Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE and the country’s government. To that end, Texas Representative Mike Conaway introduced a bill last week called Defending U.S. Government Communications Act , which aims to ban US government agencies from using phones and equipment from the companies. Conway’s bill would prohibit the US government from purchasing and using “telecommunications equipment and/or services,” from Huawei and ZTE. In a statement on his site , he says that technology coming from the country poses a threat to national security, and that use of this equipment “would be inviting Chinese surveillance into all aspects of our lives,” and cites US... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2FDV8dN"

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Not surprisingly, autonomy and electrification dominated transportation news at CES 2018. Toyota introduced its e-Palette concept mobility solution (which proceeded to dominate Engadget's Best of CES awards ), while Silicon Valley startup Robomart unveiled plans to bring produce shopping to your front door . Automakers also announced a slew of upcoming self-driving technologies, ranging from Alexa integration and automated emergency brakes to Level 5 personal transport pods that do away with the steering wheel altogether. But even among the most adventurous concepts floated at this year's trade show, Nissan's vision for the future stands out. One in which driver and vehicle could someday work in perfect harmony, thanks to a brain machine interface that instantly translates your thoughts into the vehicle's actions. It's one of a number of ideas the company is pursuing, Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan's global head of design, explained to Engadget as we walked ar...

Head Trip They entertained you for entire minutes at the dentist's office. When we view something, we notice big features and fail to zero in on less important details. via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2B04DAH"

By Tyler Wells Lynch This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter , reviews for the real world. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After more than 40 hours of research, including interviews with two butchers, an engineer, and a bunch of hunters, we think the Frigidaire FFFH20F2QW is the best freezer for most people. How we picked Most freezers do an admirable job of accomplishing the basic task of keeping things frozen, but they aren't all created equal. The best freezers are those with an upright configuration, with a capacity of at least 15 cubic feet and a cost per cubic foot of less than $45. They come from reputable companies with reputations for long-term reliability, and they include these five key features: Storage baskets and shelves that you can move around Bright interior lighting Adjustable leveling legs Power-on indicator...

After a week in the desert, CES 2018 has finally come to a close. Booths were trod, products were demoed and the conference was visited by only one of the biblical plagues. Puffco debuted one of the only cannabis gadgets seen at CES in recent memory, a gaming robot beat virtually every human who challenged it in Scrabble, and Toyota's "E-Palette" mobility concept turned all of the heads. Numbers, because how else will you tally votes for the Best of CES awards? 20 seconds : That's how long it takes for the Puffco Peak concentrate vaporizer to fully heat up -- a fraction of the time it takes e-nails to do the same and far less flammable than the butane torch method. 5 years : That's how long we'll have to wait for regulators to work their magic before hopping into Volocopter's 18-rotor autonomous sky taxi . Just make sure wherever you're flying to is within the 30-minute range limit. $120 : That's how much you're going to pay for the Vortx...