Alexa turns 10! And she gets a major upgrade. Plus, Nobi smart lights offer fall detection, and more
February 28, 2025 • 39 mins
- Live from New York, it’s….Alexa! To be exact, it’s Alexa+, the brand-new personal assistant coming in March. I catch up with Scott Durham, Director of Software Development and Smart Home at Amazon
- Also on the show, Nobi talks about its smart lights for older adults who are “aging in place.” It can track fall detection without needing to wear anything! I sit down with Nobi co-founder Roeland Pelgrims
- BlackLyte is on the show to chat about its gaming chairs and desks. On the show, we’ve got Alex Liu, Founder of Blacklyte.
- Thank you to Visa and SanDisk for your partnership on Tech It Out
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the ever changing world
of technology?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Can check it out?
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Can help make some sense of it all, Breaking down
geeksbeak into street speak. Technology columnist, author, and TV personality
Mark Saltzman covers consumer technology each week for every listener,
Mark tackles the latest news, reviews, and how toos to
help you understand what's hot, what's not and why.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey, everyone, welcome to Tech it Out. It's episode three
eighty three. Hope you're all doing great on this first
show of March. By the time you hear this, I'll
be on my way to Barcelona to attend Mobile World
Congress MWC. It's an annual tech event that, as the
name suggests, focuses primarily on smartphones and wearables and other
(00:46):
mobile gear. It's my first time attending, and actually my
first time in Spain, and so I'm stoked to see
what's there. And so if you write me on social
media or you send me an email from my website
Mark Saltzman dot com, may take me a little bit
of time to reply. But on that note, if you
do follow me on social media, you'll see that I
will be posting from Mobile World to Congress photos and
(01:08):
videos and such anything cool. I come across probably a
lot of AI this year. If you're on social media
and you want to check out my coverage from Mobile
World Congress, I'll spell my name in a moment, but
I'm on x, Facebook, Instagram, threads, blue Sky, LinkedIn, YouTube,
TikTok It's Mark Saltzman, m A R C s A
(01:29):
L t z m an Mark Saltzman. And my website
is simply Mark Saltsman dot com Mark with a C,
Saltsman with a Z, and you'll see at the bottom
you can send me a note. And speaking of AI,
I was in New York this week for Amazon's official
unveiling of Alexa Plus. So this is a much more
intelligent Alexa. She's more personable, conversational, and she has memory,
(01:55):
as you're going to hear about in our first interview
in about a minute or two for now, So she'll
remember things you like, you don't like what you tell
her to remember. Pretty wild stuff. And this is coming
next month. Alexa plus now powered by Generative AI and
some other technologies under the hood. And so we will
kick off tech it out with an interview about Alexa plus.
(02:16):
AI happens to also be part of the second interview
on tech it Out this hour, we're going to learn
about Nobe Smart Lights NBI. This is an age tech
company that focuses on aging adults and the tools that
they can use in order to live longer independently at home.
That trend is called aging in Place. So we're going
to hear what they're Smart lights or smart lamps can
(02:38):
do much more than just providing illumination. But there's some
AI there that is pretty cool. It's tied to fault detection,
so you're going to want to hear all about that,
especially if you have parents, grandparents, any other loved ones
who are living at home and you're worried about them falling.
My guests will explain how their technology differs from wearable
pendants and smart watches and the like cool stuff. And
(03:00):
then finally on tech it Out Today, we'll learn about
black Light. This is a company with gaming accessories. That'll
be a little bit later on in this show, and
so a very packed tech it Out to get to
this hour. Let's officially kick off this show with our
first interview immediately following the Amazon event in New York
this week, Alexa is about to get a whole lot smarter,
(03:22):
the popular personal assistant already in more than six hundred
million devices like Amazon Echo Smart speakers and Echo Show
smart displays. She's getting a gift for her tenth birthday,
the gift of added intelligence, more personality and memory too,
and she's getting a name change as well, Alexa Plus.
I attended the New York City coming out party for
(03:43):
Alexa Plus, and here to tell us what Alexa Plus
is capable of. We're joined on the line by Scott Durham,
director of Software Development and Smart Home at Amazon. Good
to chat with you, Scott. Thanks for your time. It
was a big week for Alexa.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Thanks Mark, I'm excited to talk to you about Alexa Plus.
It's really amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, we start at a high level, just as a summary,
what is Alexa plus all about.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Alexa Plus is bringing an entirely new intelligence to the
Alexa experience. So millions of customers that come to love
Alexa for everyday tasks like planning music, controlling the smart home,
setting timers and alarms. And now Alexa's intelligence is even smarter.
She's able to understand way more natural language. She has
(04:25):
very conversational abilities and entirely new personality. But the best
thing is, like this is AI intelligence that gets real
things done in the real world. People come to trust
Alexa and all of her capabilities, and now it's even
easier to use us today.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
All right, So let's unpack some of those new capabilities
before I ask you to share some of your favorite
examples of what Alexa plus can do. Do you need
a new Echo smart speaker or a smart display like
an Echo show screen or a fireTV device, or will
this new Alexa Plus work with what people already have
in their homes.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
What's great about Eco devices is we're constantly adding things
to them. Even devices that customers bought years ago were
constantly launching new features. And that's absolutely true with Alexa
Plus two. We're supporting a huge number of existing devices
in millions and millions of customer homes.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Okay, awesome, And I know there's also a new app
that we'll probably get to and a website, a revamp
to Alexa dot com. But let's discuss some of the
new features of Alexa Plus. Maybe you can walk us
through some sample scenarios from what I understand and you've
already hinted at this she's more conversational. You don't have
to keep saying the wake word, just once, and then
after that you just talked to your assistant as if
(05:34):
they were a real person.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, that's a really amazing part of the new experience
is you can set up entire features like visual identification,
and then for the echo show devices that have a
display and a camera. Just looking at the display, we'll
let her know that you're ready to start a conversation,
and so you don't even have to use the wakeword
in those cases. It's just much easier to have extended
ongoing conversations without using the wake word every time.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
All Right, you say the name once. If it's a
smart speaker, if it's a smart display, it would not
only recognize a person looking at the camera and can
be initiated, but it'll also know that it's you, opposed
to say, your partner or your kids, and it could
be more customized of an experience as well. So let's
pretend it's a smart speaker, you say the wake word,
(06:19):
and then what could you do with Alexa plus that
you were not able to do with Alexa.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Well, Alex has an incredible amount of new intelligence and
she brings that intelligence to every feature that she's always
been able to do, plus a bunch of new ones,
and so for existing features. As an example, music's always
been a top use case for Alexa. It's got these
great speakers, and it's always been so easy to pull
up any song, any artist, any album. Now it's really
fun because you may not remember like a specific title
(06:46):
of a song or even a specific artist, but you
can have just very casual conversations like, hey, Alexa, what
was that song that Bradley Cooper.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Sang in that movie?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
It was a duet, and Alexa will come up with
the duet that Bradley Cooper did with Lady Gaga and
a Star is Born. And so just one example where
this intelligence is stretched throughout and it makes every interaction
both a lot easier but also just a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
And what we saw on stage, Scott was that you
could actually say to Alexa plus and now show me
that clip from the movie when they're singing that song together.
And so a compatible TV like a fire TV may
turn on and show you that scene.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
That's exactly right. Like there's this great experience with fireTV
and Prime Video where you can just ask for any
part of a movie and we'll bring up that clip
and play it for you. And it's just a great
example of how this new intelligence goes beyond just any
single device or any single interface. It truly stretches across
every device that can connect to Alexa in your house
and makes it all just flow together in a really
(07:45):
natural and super easy and interactive way.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
So, staying with that, even Ring doorbells, I saw a
demo on stage where it was asked, did anybody walk
Buddy that day? And Alexa knows that Buddy is the
name of your dog. She now has memory and it
will rub through your Ring video clips and show you
anything that has the dog in it, and then you
can see if someone did in fact walk the dog
(08:08):
that day. That's a pretty cool example, cool application, something
that's really handy.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
It's really amazing and we're having so much fun using
this kind of feature. The integration with Ring is amazing
and it's super deeply integrated with Alexa's new intelligence, and
so it uses a great new Ring feature called smart
video Search, and that's available in the Ring app today
right now. Alexa can use her intelligence to search for
anything across your Ring videos and like you mentioned. You
can give Alexa knowledge and memories of you, your family,
(08:35):
things around the house. She'll pull those into the conversation
at the right times. And so an example that we
showed you yesterday, we told out Alexa, hey, we've got
a dog. His name is Buddy. He's a Bernie Doodle.
And then you can just say, hey, did you see
anyone give Buddy his walks today, and Alex will pull
up all the clips of Buddy coming and going from
the front court. It's also great for pulling up any
(08:56):
family memories that so many ring cameras can capture. And
with a great Echo show device, you can just get
the family gathered around the kitchen or wherever you may
place it and just watch fun clips of the family
doing fun things.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Speaking of memory, Scott, we are chatting with Scott Durham.
He's director of Software Development and Smart Home at Amazon.
We're talking about the new Alexa Plus, unveiled on Wednesday
in New York City. With memory, Alexa Plus can also
remember your preferences. For example, food, you could say I
love Indian food, but I'm pescatarian. I eat you know,
(09:28):
fish and eggs and cheese, but I don't need beef
and pork and what have you. It will remember that.
So in the future, if you ask for a recipe
to make at home, Alexa will remember that and suggest
an Indian dish that doesn't have meat in it. Or
if you order something at a restaurant, Alexa may flag
that it is not a pescatarian dish. Kind of thing.
That's new, right, that she could remember things, because I
(09:50):
think currently with the regular Alexa, it's like a fresh
conversation every time.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Yeah, it's one of Alexa's new superpowers is really getting
to know you every member of your family and then
integrating that knowledge throughout the experience. And so your example
of food preferences is a really great one. You can
set those for every member of your family, and they
may be like kind of hard and a difficult combination
of different interests and preferences. But Alexa's new intelligence will
(10:15):
combine those together. And if you're trying to create the
perfect recipe or order the perfect to go for the
people that are going to be around the house at
that time, she'll help you find the perfect thing based
on the things she knows.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, I think in the demo they said something like
we're having a dinner party and one of the people
coming is our friend's daughter who's like five, and she's
picky what should we make her? And Alexa suggested, I
don't know whatever, chicken bites or pasta and give her
reason why and stuff. So yeah, really neat stuff. We're
going to learn more about Alexa plus, including when it's
rolling out and what you need to get going when
(10:48):
we return on Tech it Out. We'll also hear a
few more examples of the things that she can do
tied to her memory that is not available with the
current Alexa, so we're going to continue chatting about that
when we return. Also on the program Don't Forget, we're
going to learn about Noby's smart lights for aging adults
people who want to live longer at home independently, and
(11:08):
how these smart lights can help them with fault detection.
They don't have to wear anything. That's all part of
the aging in place trend that we're seeing now it's
more than a trend, in fact, so we're going to
get to all of that and more when we return
on Teck it Out. Stick with us, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Listen to check it out. Whenever you want to find
the Check it Out podcast, Did I too, or wherever
you get your.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Podcasts, Welcome back to check it Out. Before we continue
chatting with Scott Durham, director of Software Development and Smart
Home at Amazon to learn more about Alexa Plus, I
(11:50):
wanted to give a quick shout out to Visa. They
are a fantastic partner on this program. We cover cybersecurity
a lot and how you can best protect yourself in
the digital age, even if you're not super tech savvy.
One part of the solution is securely shopping online, and
so I'm thrilled about my partnership with Visa on Tech
it Out, as they've made some significant investments in fraud
(12:12):
prevention over the past five years, as much as ten
billion dollars yes that's billion with a B, to support
Visa's brand promise to protect the financial information of individuals
and businesses. Zero liability means peace of mind when you
shop online using your Visa card. There could be no
half measures when it comes to cybersecurity, which is why
(12:32):
the company takes an aggressive and multi layered approach to
combating the rising threat of malicious software and other threats
by well funded and global criminal enterprises. Read more about
Visa and how securing the world's payments is priority one
at Visa dot com slash security. That's Visa dot Com
slash security, all right. A couple of minutes left with
(12:53):
Scott Durham from Amazon to learn more about Alexa plus,
a significantly upgraded a life personal assistant unveiled this week
in New York. Alexa is now more conversational, more personalized,
and also has memory. She will recall things. And speaking
of memory, we saw an example of uploading a PDF
(13:14):
document I think it was an HOA document at Alexa
dot com, and then in the future you could say,
am I allowed to install solar panels on my roof?
And Alexa will go through those documents that you've previously
uploaded and then say to you in plain English, yes,
you are allowed mark to install solar panels so long
as they're not visible from the road. So that's pretty
(13:35):
cool that it could analyze and summarize documents for you
and recall them later. That was neat and also access
to your calendar, your contacts. We saw an example yesterday
on stage of I think someone had an appointment with
their I don't know. I think it was like a
dance recital, but at the same time you're supposed to
pick up your mom from the airport. Alexa proactively, like
(13:56):
preemptively called out that conflict on your calendar, told you
about it, and then suggested, do you want me to
order an uber to pick up your mom from the airport?
Stuff like that, and then texter texter the uber information.
That's really wild.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
It's amazing, Like this is one of the coolest features.
You can just email Alexa anything or tell her anything,
and she'll remember those facts and in many cases she'll
take proactive action on them. So you can forward her
an invite to a party or an event that will
be automatically added to your calendar without saying anything, doing
anything else, just forwarding it to Alexa at Alexa dot
com and it'll be a place in the perfect place
(14:32):
in your account and use right there in your experience.
And those really deep documents that you mentioned is a
fantastic feature because this intelligence that Alexa Plus now has
lets you pull those back in any time and sort
through like really complex topics, really complex documents and get
to exactly the answer and the information that you want.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, that's great. And then there's so much we haven't
even touched on Scott even like kids, they can ask
Alexa to give them a story if you have a
smart display, not just a smart speaker, or it will
create visuals for you, like I want a story about
a peacock that plays electric guitar who's going on an adventure,
and Alexa Plus will narrate a story for the kids
and show images to complement it. So as we wrap up,
(15:12):
tell us please when Alexa Plus will roll out, how
much it will cost and where we can learn more.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Alexa Plus is going to be available in early access
to customers starting at the end of March. It's going
to be nineteen ninety nine a month to subscribe to
Alexa Plus and get all of its green new features.
But it will also be completely free for Prime members,
so a really huge value all right.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
So to be clear, it's free if you're a Prime
member already, which I think has a huge value proposition
free deliveries on millions of items, often the same day
or next day. You've got access to Prime music and ebooks,
and of course TV shows and movies and other benefits
for being a Prime member and now access to Alexa Plus,
and as you mentioned, it works with most existing Echo
(15:55):
devices and fireTV devices, adding Alexa dot com smartphone app.
So the best places simply Alexa dot com to learn
more as well.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Absolutely, that's where you can find out all the details
and sign up if you're interested.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Awesome, Scott, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Thank you Mark.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Great to talk with you.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
What do you think of Alexa Plus? Would you use it?
Let me know on social media or if you prefer email,
let me know what you think. I'm on all the
big social platforms. Just search for me by name, It's
Mark Saltzman, Mark with A C SA L t z
M A N or Mark Saltzman dot com and you
can send me a note privately if you prefer that
over social media. But curious to know what you thought
(16:32):
if this is something that you would use, and what
about the price at first? Truthfully, when I was in
the audience and they said it was going to be
nineteen ninety nine a month, there was a breath between
that comment and when they said, but free if you're
an Amazon Prime member. So I'm really happy they were
doing that because again, as I said in my interview
with Scott, and I do mean this that I think
(16:53):
it's a no brainer. It's a great service, well worth
the money in my opinion, and now with Alexa Plus,
but I'm glad that there may it free if you're
already a Prime member. So that's my two cents for
what it's worth, all right. As I mentioned, the Amazon
interview was just one of three on today's Tack it Out.
So when we return after this short break, we're going
to catch up with nob that's Nobnobi dot Life if
(17:16):
you want to check out their website. This is a
smartlight for aging adults. We don't really say seniors anymore,
not that it's a negative term, but a bit outdated,
as my AARP editor has reminded me. And so this
is for those who are aging in place. They want
to live longer at home independently, and so it has
fall detection built into the lamp. Really cool stuff. Also
(17:37):
on today's tech it Out black Light, we're going to
hear about gaming accessories, a new chair for those who
like to get their game on console or PC gaming.
So we're going to learn about that brand it's black
and then Lyte and so a lot more tech it
Out to get to. Thanks for all the great feedback
from last week when I had Twitch on and their
partnership with NASA. I was told that I was saying
(18:00):
the word wrong NASA like Nasau Bahamas and so I
had a nice listener in Tennessee correct me. So thank
you for that. So yes, it's NASA not Nasau. All right,
more check it out coming right up after this want.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
To follow Mark Google up Mark with Az and Saltzman
with a Z breaking down geeks beak into street speak.
This is check it out. Check it out with technology columnist, author,
(18:36):
and TV personality Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Welcome back to check it out. As you likely know,
the population is aging due to the Baby Boom generation
those born between nineteen forty six and nineteen sixty four.
Fun fact, by twenty thirty, all boomers will be sixty
five and older, and with this shift comes different priorities
in the home. To help our loved ones agent place
(19:00):
is the phrase aging in place, living longer independently at home.
Today we're going to hear about smart lights that do
much more than provide illumination. Joining us from the AI
powered company Nobi to explain is It's co founder Roland Pilgrims.
Welcome to the show, Roland, good to chat with you, Hi, Mark,
Thanks for having me pleasure. I cover this space a
lot as a journalist writing for AARP and Zoomer in
(19:23):
Canada for the aging adult population. So with that in mind,
at a high level, tell us what NOB is all about.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Sure, Nobi is the smartest light in the world. We
like to empower caregivers and elderly with desirable technology and
we do that with faul detection, fault prevention, well being monitoring,
anything we can do basically to keep elderly safe and
caregivers happy. That's our mission and we do that impact
in a beautiful design light.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
All right. So NOB the company and the product is
called Nobi as well, which are these smart lights? Which okay,
got it, all right, And we'll unpack some of those
features in a moment. But I was curious know about
the company's mo So you're an age tech organization that
wants to leverage AI artificial intelligence to help aging people
live longer, independently and safely. Have you noticed, Roland, that
(20:11):
there is an increased focus on aging in place as
a trend overall.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
And I think this goes far beyond a trend. It
is it's a must. There is a tsunami of aging.
The result of that is an ever growing gap between
people that need care and caregivers available to deliver net care,
and that gap needs bridging. And at NOBE, we strongly
believe that that bridge is technology, and that technology should
be human and desirable technology, so stuff that you actually
(20:38):
buy not because you need it, but because you want it.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
And to be clear, a caregiver could be a family
member as well, right, doesn't that be a professional caregiver? Yeah,
like your aging mom or your granddad. You may not
be living with them, but technology can service that bridge,
as you called it, to ensure that your loved ones
are living safe and independent lives even when you're not
with them physically exactly. Yeah, So let's hear a bit
more about Noby's solutions. Okay, so these are smart lights.
(21:03):
When I hear smart lights, I think of, you know,
an app or a voice controlled light that you can
turn on or off or maybe dim. But yours goes
above and beyond that which you've already hinted at, including
fall detection. Can you elaborate.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Yeah, Basically, what we've done is we've taken a beautiful
LUMINAI and we've stuffed that with technology. So that's sensors,
that's computing power, that's connectivity, that's also sound, And with
that collection of sensing and computing power, we delivered function.
Now do you have to think about us really like
an iPhone that you glued to the ceiling on which
we deploy various apps, and one of those apps is
(21:36):
fall detection, but it really goes beyond that.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
As a journalist, I've covered millimeter wave technology where you
don't have to wear a pendant or a smart watch
to detect a fall uses Wi Fi if I'm not mistaken,
and so are your smart lights similar in the sense
that you don't have to wear anything because you may
forget to wear something that can detect a fall, or
the batteries may need a charge and therefore it's not
going to work. So is that similar?
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Yeah, and you're absolutely right. The goal is to transform
dumb and blind environments in smart and connected rooms that
care for you. And the technology that we use is
actually optical sensors. And the reason we do so is
because perfection matters. You know, if any solution that gets
engineered achieves a let's say fall detection reliability of ninety
(22:22):
five percent. Then that is an outstanding engineering accomplishment, but
it's not an operational success because that would mean that,
let's take an average senior living community, that technology will
result in seventy phone calls per day to a front
desk for events that never happened. And what I think
sets us apart from any other solution out there is
our goal standard technology performance today we still have in
(22:45):
our entire install base is zero percent false negatives rate.
And what that means mark is that it has never
happened that someone fell in an ob observed room that
we didn't see. And that's really key because if you
want to be impactful in care, you need to approach
perfection and that's what we're trying to do with our
technology choice.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
We're chatting with Roland Pilgrims. He's co founder of a
company called Nobi. This is an age tech company that
manufacturers and sells these smart lights that do a lot
more than just provide illumination for a room. It can
detect a fall. So that's the primary benefit along with light,
of course is fault detection.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yeah, and fall detection is keys where it all started.
But what we like to do even more obviously is
fault prevention and we have actually great results there. In
a case study that we did in UK, we've been
able to reduce falls by eighty four percent. If you
look in the communities that we serve in the US,
we're around fifty one percent of falls that we reduce,
and that's amongst others, like you mentioned, thanks to light.
(23:45):
Light matters. It's a source of well being but also
a source of safety. Give you an example, Mark. Imagine Mark,
your grandfather at night wants to get out of bed
right the light will immediately see that that intention of
leaving the bed and will go on with a soft,
dimmed light, not so much to wake him up, but
to make sure that he has visual reference. As soon
as he leaves the bed completely, light goes on full
(24:06):
force so that your grandfather can go to the bedroom
after its return to bed and the lamp will shut down.
Those functions are actually from intervention perspective, pretty simple turn
the light on when it's needed. But from a tech perspective,
they're super advanced because you need to make very sure
that whenever you intervene is when people really have the
(24:26):
intention of leaving the bed, but always when they have
the intention to leave the bed. And that's really I
think where the magic lies is to provide technology support
whenever it is needed, but only when it's needed. We
want to be very much like Superman. Ninety nine percent
of time we're just Clark Kent, but when you need us,
temporarily put on funny pants and a cape.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Nice reference there, Roland. Okay, So fall prevention falls under
the illumination part of things. So the better the light,
the less likely that you may fall, trip, what have you.
And the ai I guess is the detection that you're
just moving around in bed. You want to soft light
versus a brighter light when you need guidance to get
to a bathroom, for example. Is that fair?
Speaker 4 (25:08):
Yeah, So we run our AI models on the light
and that local processing is actually quite important from a
privacy perspective. So the way the solution works is we
take data in all the time and in a process
that we call real time anonymization, we translate all that
data in abstract stick figures, and our AI analyzes the
behavior of those stick figures in real time not only
(25:31):
to see if someone has fallen yes or no, but
also if they're in the out of bed in the bedroom,
how long they're in the bathroom, how well they are sleeping,
et cetera. So the profile you get out of that
is really a pretty complete but privacy safe well being
report that helps care givers indeed professionals, but also family
members to take care of their loved ones the best
(25:52):
way possible.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I'm fascinated by technology like this that seems at least
sounds like it is virtually invisible, but it can do
its thing without being hard to use or anything like that.
So we're going to learn more about nob lights when
we return. I know this is a topic that is
especially of interest for those with aging parents, as I do. Truthfully,
(26:14):
my folks are in their eighties, and so stick with me.
More tech it out coming right up after this.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Breaking down geek speak into street speak. Check it out.
Holosted by Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Welcome back to the program. A few more minutes with
Roland Helgrims, He's co founder of an AI powered company
called no Bnobi, to tell us about its smart lights
or smart lamps. Just continuing the thought before the break,
can this be tweaked like, let's say your aging parent
is living with a partner and the partner is still
(26:57):
sleeping though you want to go to the bathroom the
bright lights to turn on for the entire bedroom. Is
there a way that you can tweak it, like via
an app?
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Yeah, and that's that's actually a very interesting question mark
the big challenge I think with technology and definitely if
you want to build it like we do with a
with a very strong focus on design and desirability is
often not so much technical feasibility but desirability. So can
we indeed make sure that light is on or off
depending on the preferences of those residents, of those that
(27:29):
couple living together. Absolutely, And then the big challenge is
not that from a tech perspective, but from a user
experience perspective. How do you make sure that the preferences
of those people are captured in a really, really comfortable
way so that they can actually use it? And that's
less about technology performance, it's really about UIX and UI design,
(27:49):
and that's something that we kind of obsess over.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Okay, yeah, well, especially for that age group, it has
to be easy to use. And I'm going to ask
you about set up in a moment before I let
you go, But first just to play Devil's Advocate Roland.
I mean, one of the benefits of having this technology,
I would think is that you don't need to wear
anything or have it charged up in order to detect
a fall, like an Apple watch or a you know,
a Phillip's Lifeline pendant or something like that. But the downside,
(28:12):
if I may, is that it's limited to the room
that the light is in. So if you don't have
them throughout the entire home, or you go out for
a walk and you fall, this may not protect you absolutely.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
And that's also why our philosophy is really a philosophy
of combination. So we don't have anything against wearables. We
just know that in house their adoption is relatively low
and that very often wearables don't succeed in detecting the
events that they're supposed to detect. There was a study
in UK where the oldest elderly, so ninety five and older,
(28:46):
when they were on the floor and they had one
of those panic buttons and they had an alarm system
that they could press that verified Okay, how often are
they able to do that? And basically eight out of
ten were unable to do so, And that's a pretty
dramatic result. Do I like wearables absolutely, they're on the skin,
they can give great information and when you're outside with
(29:07):
location tracking, that can be super valuable information. Indoors, however,
we notice that the performance is just not strong enough
to be one hundred percent sure that your parent or
your grandparent is actually safe. And if you want to
change the way you deliver care, you need this one
hundred percent certainty. So do we like wearables absolutely? Great
(29:28):
source of additional information and a perfect complement for outdoors.
Would we rely on them solely for indoor monitoring and
optimization of care? No? Absolutely, not fair?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Thank you for that, all right? And then as we
wrap up Roland, is this something that's difficult to set up? Like?
Is it a special bulb? You called it a lamp,
so that implies there is more hardware than the light itself.
And how much are we talking about here? Is it
sold in packs in case you want them in different
parts of the home, that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Yeah, The obsession with design and zirability is not only
from the perspective of the people that I have to
look at it. So we don't only want to design
beautiful object. We also want that desirability to be true
for installation partners, technicians and what have you. So we
have invested quite a lot in a light that is
super easy to mount. So if you can mount an
(30:17):
it a light, then you can mount a Nobe light.
It's that simple.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
So you don't need professional installation. It is a DIY
or off the shelf solution.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
We don't recommend it actually because much more important than
the installation of the hardware is the proper use and
the adoption of the technology, and people that embrace Nobi
usually have a good reason to do so. It's either
because they fail for the first time, they're worried about
their loved ones, and the fact that we try to
bring peace of mind is something that we strongly associate
(30:46):
with a professional onboarding. So could you install it by yourself? Sure?
From a tech perspective, should you? Well? From an ideal
user experience perspective, we prefer to send in nob experts
that can guide you through that entire process. Today Obi
works always with professional partners, so people that are used
to deliver technology in people's.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Hopes, approximately, how much do they start at and where
can we learn more?
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Nobi is oney three hundred and ninety nine for the
smart light, and we have a smaller sibling, Nobita, which
we use in bedrooms, in toilets, et cetera. That is
at six ninety nine. And if you want to learn
more about NOB then just go to www dot nob
dot lif and that is life with an.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
F all right, so it's Nob dot lif, so NBI
dot lif to learn more. Our guest has been Roland Pelgrims.
Thanks so much for your time. Roland appreciate it. Thank you,
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Mark.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Just as I asked for your feedback after the Amazon
Alexa plus interview, I'd like to hear from you what
you think of NOB, either in concept or the price.
Maybe you've already used it, by the way, they also
work with retirement homes long term care facilities. But I
really sort of build that intervie you as a solution
to aging in place, and so I focused almost exclusively
(32:05):
on the fact that we may have aging parents who
may want to live longer at home independently, and so
as a remote caregiver someone not living with them, how
this can help them as well. But they also have
some partnerships with retirement homes and the like, so it
would be remiss for me not to at least acknowledge that.
And there's a service as well as service fee, a
monthly fee that is all outlined on the website nob
(32:28):
dot life, Nobi dot l I f E. But let
me know what you think. I'm on x and Facebook, Instagram, threads,
blue Sky, LinkedIn YouTube, TikTok, or you can hit me
up on my website Mark Saltzman dot com, Mark with
a C, saltsman with a Z, and let me know
what you think of this. When we return on tech
it out, we're going to get our game on and
(32:49):
talk with black Light. This is a company that has
some gaming chairs and other accessories. Speaking of which, don't
forget about storage. You want fast SSD solid state eight drives,
whether external or internal solutions for your PlayStation, your Xbox,
your laptop or desktop. I always trust sanddisk SanDisk dot com.
All right, we'll be right back with more. Check it out.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, listen
to check it out whenever you want.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Computer gamers often look to buy accessories for their setup,
like wireless headsets, you know, for private listening or to
trash talk others online. Or maybe gamers want fast and
comfortable mice and keyboards to give them an edge over
the competition. Of course, there are monitors with fast refresh rates,
but what about gaming chairs and desks. Well, here to
(33:49):
tell us all about a new brand, black Light. We're
joined by Alex lou He's the founder of the company.
Hi Alex, thanks for your time today. Hey Mark, thanks
for having us. For those unfamiliar with black Light, and
we should tell our listeners, it's one word and light
is spelled l yte, so it's all in Capital's black Light.
Tell us about the brand.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
I would say we are an integrated system that provide
an immersive experience for people who's into gaming, music, or
any type of entertainment. Or we can say our brand
is for the game changers, because not only for gaming industry.
Actually a lot of office users can benefit from our brand.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Also, thanks for explaining that it's also for other kinds
of entertainment as well as those who work in office
as well. So with that in mind, Alex, tell us
about some of your more popular products.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
So the two product that we're launching the market right
now is our gaming chair and gaming desks. We have
the Theena giming chair right now and at us table,
I can tell you a little bit from the chair first, yeah, please,
a little bit over a year and a half developed
industrare to solve the back pain problem that happens to
a lot of gamers and office users. We spend a
lot of development power into the ergonomic design. We do
(34:57):
have a lumber support combined with our me foam to
give the best support to the back. And then also
we use aluminum base for more lightweight design. And then
we use a level three piston which supports a maximum
of one hundred and fifty programs should be covering majority
of the population. We did use a rollerblade casters which
(35:17):
protects your floor, doesn't damage anything. And then we have
a forty armrest which can change the direction of the
armrest that can use for mobile gaming, IPI use on
the chair, lounging or different situations. And also you have
a newly developed texture that is we can call it.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
The Vegan wall.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
That's very scheme friendly and very different from our competitors
for the gaming deaths. That's where all the juice comes in.
We can't just say a desk is probably more a
modular platform, I would say, so we do have our
own design chip and module built in into the desk,
powered by our own graphic algorithm and audio algorithm analytics.
(35:59):
So basically we're analyzing the in screen data, take data
from the game, convert them into lightning signal.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Whoa, whoa, Okay, this is really cool. Okay, so you
got to explain this part. So the chair and the desk,
and I know you don't need to have both, it'll
work with either one. They plug into computer or video
game console.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
Correct, correct, So we run the software within the console
or PC, analyze the data, and then it can sync
to the other devices. That's why I said we're an
integrated brand because not only sync to our product, we
also open bridge to a lot of different brands, which
is in the development right now. I can't really claim
what name they are, but you guys will see start
(36:42):
seeing stuff on the news.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
All right. So just to be clear, the chair and
the desk they plug into the computer. I guess through USB.
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (36:50):
So the table or the chip plug into the computer
by HDMI.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Oh htmi, yes, and then it synchronizes with that game
content for lighting and sound or just lighting.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
Lighting and sound.
Speaker 5 (37:02):
That's why I said it's also for the music producers
because with the audio algorithm, we can analyze the tone,
the pitch of different sound and create a light show
for any type of music you listen to.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Okay, very cool. So they're speakers inside of the chair
and in the desk.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
In the chair at the moment. No, we do have
a developments with light building into the.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Chair, multicolored lights like multicolored RGB RGB IC. You already
know we are chatting with Alex Liu. He is founder
of a company called black Light. It's one word b
l A c k l yte and they are the
folks behind the Athena and Atlas gaming chair. And don't
call it a desk, Let's call it a battle station. Correct.
(37:43):
So I was going to ask you, I know that
there are some other high tech chairs and desks. What
would you say make the black Light products more unique
compared to your competition.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
For the chair, It's more like a companion product to
the table or for the whole system. Is succeed the
competitor's quality in the market and offers the best value
for the customer for the table. From the conversation, you
already know basically we don't really have a competitor in
the market right now. We are open up a new
field that no one is in right now.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Could this work with a video game console like a
PlayStation five and Xbox Series X or Nintendo Switch.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
Yes, PS five, Nintendo's Xbox that requires a different hub
to analyze the data. It does link to the like too,
so you can go directly visit our website. Go black
Light dot com. G O B L A s k
L y T dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Great, all right, Go black Light dot com. Alex. Great
to chat with you, wishing you much luck and success
with the black Light brand for gamers and entertainment seekers.
Thanks again, Thank you man with all the best, and
thank you for tuning in to check it out everyone.
Hope you enjoyed this show. We talked about Alexa Plus
from Amazon coming in late March to start Nobi with
(38:53):
smart lights with fall detection and black Light as well.
All the best everyone, have a great rest of your
and I'll chat with you next weekend for a brand
new episode of check it Out. Bye bye for now.
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the ever changing world
of technology?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Can check it out?
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Can help make some sense of it all, Breaking down
geeksbeak into street speak. Technology columnist, author, and TV personality
Mark Saltzman covers consumer technology each week for every listener,
Mark tackles the latest news, reviews, and how toos to
help you understand what's hot, what's not and why.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey, everyone, welcome to Tech it Out. It's episode three
eighty three. Hope you're all doing great on this first
show of March. By the time you hear this, I'll
be on my way to Barcelona to attend Mobile World
Congress MWC. It's an annual tech event that, as the
name suggests, focuses primarily on smartphones and wearables and other
(00:46):
mobile gear. It's my first time attending, and actually my
first time in Spain, and so I'm stoked to see
what's there. And so if you write me on social
media or you send me an email from my website
Mark Saltzman dot com, may take me a little bit
of time to reply. But on that note, if you
do follow me on social media, you'll see that I
will be posting from Mobile World to Congress photos and
(01:08):
videos and such anything cool. I come across probably a
lot of AI this year. If you're on social media
and you want to check out my coverage from Mobile
World Congress, I'll spell my name in a moment, but
I'm on x, Facebook, Instagram, threads, blue Sky, LinkedIn, YouTube,
TikTok It's Mark Saltzman, m A R C s A
(01:29):
L t z m an Mark Saltzman. And my website
is simply Mark Saltsman dot com Mark with a C,
Saltsman with a Z, and you'll see at the bottom
you can send me a note. And speaking of AI,
I was in New York this week for Amazon's official
unveiling of Alexa Plus. So this is a much more
intelligent Alexa. She's more personable, conversational, and she has memory,
(01:55):
as you're going to hear about in our first interview
in about a minute or two for now, So she'll
remember things you like, you don't like what you tell
her to remember. Pretty wild stuff. And this is coming
next month. Alexa plus now powered by Generative AI and
some other technologies under the hood. And so we will
kick off tech it out with an interview about Alexa plus.
(02:16):
AI happens to also be part of the second interview
on tech it Out this hour, we're going to learn
about Nobe Smart Lights NBI. This is an age tech
company that focuses on aging adults and the tools that
they can use in order to live longer independently at home.
That trend is called aging in Place. So we're going
to hear what they're Smart lights or smart lamps can
(02:38):
do much more than just providing illumination. But there's some
AI there that is pretty cool. It's tied to fault detection,
so you're going to want to hear all about that,
especially if you have parents, grandparents, any other loved ones
who are living at home and you're worried about them falling.
My guests will explain how their technology differs from wearable
pendants and smart watches and the like cool stuff. And
(03:00):
then finally on tech it Out Today, we'll learn about
black Light. This is a company with gaming accessories. That'll
be a little bit later on in this show, and
so a very packed tech it Out to get to
this hour. Let's officially kick off this show with our
first interview immediately following the Amazon event in New York
this week, Alexa is about to get a whole lot smarter,
(03:22):
the popular personal assistant already in more than six hundred
million devices like Amazon Echo Smart speakers and Echo Show
smart displays. She's getting a gift for her tenth birthday,
the gift of added intelligence, more personality and memory too,
and she's getting a name change as well, Alexa Plus.
I attended the New York City coming out party for
(03:43):
Alexa Plus, and here to tell us what Alexa Plus
is capable of. We're joined on the line by Scott Durham,
director of Software Development and Smart Home at Amazon. Good
to chat with you, Scott. Thanks for your time. It
was a big week for Alexa.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Thanks Mark, I'm excited to talk to you about Alexa Plus.
It's really amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, we start at a high level, just as a summary,
what is Alexa plus all about.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Alexa Plus is bringing an entirely new intelligence to the
Alexa experience. So millions of customers that come to love
Alexa for everyday tasks like planning music, controlling the smart home,
setting timers and alarms. And now Alexa's intelligence is even smarter.
She's able to understand way more natural language. She has
(04:25):
very conversational abilities and entirely new personality. But the best
thing is, like this is AI intelligence that gets real
things done in the real world. People come to trust
Alexa and all of her capabilities, and now it's even
easier to use us today.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
All right, So let's unpack some of those new capabilities
before I ask you to share some of your favorite
examples of what Alexa plus can do. Do you need
a new Echo smart speaker or a smart display like
an Echo show screen or a fireTV device, or will
this new Alexa Plus work with what people already have
in their homes.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
What's great about Eco devices is we're constantly adding things
to them. Even devices that customers bought years ago were
constantly launching new features. And that's absolutely true with Alexa
Plus two. We're supporting a huge number of existing devices
in millions and millions of customer homes.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Okay, awesome, And I know there's also a new app
that we'll probably get to and a website, a revamp
to Alexa dot com. But let's discuss some of the
new features of Alexa Plus. Maybe you can walk us
through some sample scenarios from what I understand and you've
already hinted at this she's more conversational. You don't have
to keep saying the wake word, just once, and then
after that you just talked to your assistant as if
(05:34):
they were a real person.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, that's a really amazing part of the new experience
is you can set up entire features like visual identification,
and then for the echo show devices that have a
display and a camera. Just looking at the display, we'll
let her know that you're ready to start a conversation,
and so you don't even have to use the wakeword
in those cases. It's just much easier to have extended
ongoing conversations without using the wake word every time.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
All Right, you say the name once. If it's a
smart speaker, if it's a smart display, it would not
only recognize a person looking at the camera and can
be initiated, but it'll also know that it's you, opposed
to say, your partner or your kids, and it could
be more customized of an experience as well. So let's
pretend it's a smart speaker, you say the wake word,
(06:19):
and then what could you do with Alexa plus that
you were not able to do with Alexa.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Well, Alex has an incredible amount of new intelligence and
she brings that intelligence to every feature that she's always
been able to do, plus a bunch of new ones,
and so for existing features. As an example, music's always
been a top use case for Alexa. It's got these
great speakers, and it's always been so easy to pull
up any song, any artist, any album. Now it's really
fun because you may not remember like a specific title
(06:46):
of a song or even a specific artist, but you
can have just very casual conversations like, hey, Alexa, what
was that song that Bradley Cooper.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Sang in that movie?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
It was a duet, and Alexa will come up with
the duet that Bradley Cooper did with Lady Gaga and
a Star is Born. And so just one example where
this intelligence is stretched throughout and it makes every interaction
both a lot easier but also just a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
And what we saw on stage, Scott was that you
could actually say to Alexa plus and now show me
that clip from the movie when they're singing that song together.
And so a compatible TV like a fire TV may
turn on and show you that scene.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
That's exactly right. Like there's this great experience with fireTV
and Prime Video where you can just ask for any
part of a movie and we'll bring up that clip
and play it for you. And it's just a great
example of how this new intelligence goes beyond just any
single device or any single interface. It truly stretches across
every device that can connect to Alexa in your house
and makes it all just flow together in a really
(07:45):
natural and super easy and interactive way.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
So, staying with that, even Ring doorbells, I saw a
demo on stage where it was asked, did anybody walk
Buddy that day? And Alexa knows that Buddy is the
name of your dog. She now has memory and it
will rub through your Ring video clips and show you
anything that has the dog in it, and then you
can see if someone did in fact walk the dog
(08:08):
that day. That's a pretty cool example, cool application, something
that's really handy.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
It's really amazing and we're having so much fun using
this kind of feature. The integration with Ring is amazing
and it's super deeply integrated with Alexa's new intelligence, and
so it uses a great new Ring feature called smart
video Search, and that's available in the Ring app today
right now. Alexa can use her intelligence to search for
anything across your Ring videos and like you mentioned. You
can give Alexa knowledge and memories of you, your family,
(08:35):
things around the house. She'll pull those into the conversation
at the right times. And so an example that we
showed you yesterday, we told out Alexa, hey, we've got
a dog. His name is Buddy. He's a Bernie Doodle.
And then you can just say, hey, did you see
anyone give Buddy his walks today, and Alex will pull
up all the clips of Buddy coming and going from
the front court. It's also great for pulling up any
(08:56):
family memories that so many ring cameras can capture. And
with a great Echo show device, you can just get
the family gathered around the kitchen or wherever you may
place it and just watch fun clips of the family
doing fun things.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Speaking of memory, Scott, we are chatting with Scott Durham.
He's director of Software Development and Smart Home at Amazon.
We're talking about the new Alexa Plus, unveiled on Wednesday
in New York City. With memory, Alexa Plus can also
remember your preferences. For example, food, you could say I
love Indian food, but I'm pescatarian. I eat you know,
(09:28):
fish and eggs and cheese, but I don't need beef
and pork and what have you. It will remember that.
So in the future, if you ask for a recipe
to make at home, Alexa will remember that and suggest
an Indian dish that doesn't have meat in it. Or
if you order something at a restaurant, Alexa may flag
that it is not a pescatarian dish. Kind of thing.
That's new, right, that she could remember things, because I
(09:50):
think currently with the regular Alexa, it's like a fresh
conversation every time.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Yeah, it's one of Alexa's new superpowers is really getting
to know you every member of your family and then
integrating that knowledge throughout the experience. And so your example
of food preferences is a really great one. You can
set those for every member of your family, and they
may be like kind of hard and a difficult combination
of different interests and preferences. But Alexa's new intelligence will
(10:15):
combine those together. And if you're trying to create the
perfect recipe or order the perfect to go for the
people that are going to be around the house at
that time, she'll help you find the perfect thing based
on the things she knows.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, I think in the demo they said something like
we're having a dinner party and one of the people
coming is our friend's daughter who's like five, and she's
picky what should we make her? And Alexa suggested, I
don't know whatever, chicken bites or pasta and give her
reason why and stuff. So yeah, really neat stuff. We're
going to learn more about Alexa plus, including when it's
rolling out and what you need to get going when
(10:48):
we return on Tech it Out. We'll also hear a
few more examples of the things that she can do
tied to her memory that is not available with the
current Alexa, so we're going to continue chatting about that
when we return. Also on the program Don't Forget, we're
going to learn about Noby's smart lights for aging adults
people who want to live longer at home independently, and
(11:08):
how these smart lights can help them with fault detection.
They don't have to wear anything. That's all part of
the aging in place trend that we're seeing now it's
more than a trend, in fact, so we're going to
get to all of that and more when we return
on Teck it Out. Stick with us, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Listen to check it out. Whenever you want to find
the Check it Out podcast, Did I too, or wherever
you get your.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Podcasts, Welcome back to check it Out. Before we continue
chatting with Scott Durham, director of Software Development and Smart
Home at Amazon to learn more about Alexa Plus, I
(11:50):
wanted to give a quick shout out to Visa. They
are a fantastic partner on this program. We cover cybersecurity
a lot and how you can best protect yourself in
the digital age, even if you're not super tech savvy.
One part of the solution is securely shopping online, and
so I'm thrilled about my partnership with Visa on Tech
it Out, as they've made some significant investments in fraud
(12:12):
prevention over the past five years, as much as ten
billion dollars yes that's billion with a B, to support
Visa's brand promise to protect the financial information of individuals
and businesses. Zero liability means peace of mind when you
shop online using your Visa card. There could be no
half measures when it comes to cybersecurity, which is why
(12:32):
the company takes an aggressive and multi layered approach to
combating the rising threat of malicious software and other threats
by well funded and global criminal enterprises. Read more about
Visa and how securing the world's payments is priority one
at Visa dot com slash security. That's Visa dot Com
slash security, all right. A couple of minutes left with
(12:53):
Scott Durham from Amazon to learn more about Alexa plus,
a significantly upgraded a life personal assistant unveiled this week
in New York. Alexa is now more conversational, more personalized,
and also has memory. She will recall things. And speaking
of memory, we saw an example of uploading a PDF
(13:14):
document I think it was an HOA document at Alexa
dot com, and then in the future you could say,
am I allowed to install solar panels on my roof?
And Alexa will go through those documents that you've previously
uploaded and then say to you in plain English, yes,
you are allowed mark to install solar panels so long
as they're not visible from the road. So that's pretty
(13:35):
cool that it could analyze and summarize documents for you
and recall them later. That was neat and also access
to your calendar, your contacts. We saw an example yesterday
on stage of I think someone had an appointment with
their I don't know. I think it was like a
dance recital, but at the same time you're supposed to
pick up your mom from the airport. Alexa proactively, like
(13:56):
preemptively called out that conflict on your calendar, told you
about it, and then suggested, do you want me to
order an uber to pick up your mom from the airport?
Stuff like that, and then texter texter the uber information.
That's really wild.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
It's amazing, Like this is one of the coolest features.
You can just email Alexa anything or tell her anything,
and she'll remember those facts and in many cases she'll
take proactive action on them. So you can forward her
an invite to a party or an event that will
be automatically added to your calendar without saying anything, doing
anything else, just forwarding it to Alexa at Alexa dot
com and it'll be a place in the perfect place
(14:32):
in your account and use right there in your experience.
And those really deep documents that you mentioned is a
fantastic feature because this intelligence that Alexa Plus now has
lets you pull those back in any time and sort
through like really complex topics, really complex documents and get
to exactly the answer and the information that you want.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, that's great. And then there's so much we haven't
even touched on Scott even like kids, they can ask
Alexa to give them a story if you have a
smart display, not just a smart speaker, or it will
create visuals for you, like I want a story about
a peacock that plays electric guitar who's going on an adventure,
and Alexa Plus will narrate a story for the kids
and show images to complement it. So as we wrap up,
(15:12):
tell us please when Alexa Plus will roll out, how
much it will cost and where we can learn more.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Alexa Plus is going to be available in early access
to customers starting at the end of March. It's going
to be nineteen ninety nine a month to subscribe to
Alexa Plus and get all of its green new features.
But it will also be completely free for Prime members,
so a really huge value all right.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
So to be clear, it's free if you're a Prime
member already, which I think has a huge value proposition
free deliveries on millions of items, often the same day
or next day. You've got access to Prime music and ebooks,
and of course TV shows and movies and other benefits
for being a Prime member and now access to Alexa Plus,
and as you mentioned, it works with most existing Echo
(15:55):
devices and fireTV devices, adding Alexa dot com smartphone app.
So the best places simply Alexa dot com to learn
more as well.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Absolutely, that's where you can find out all the details
and sign up if you're interested.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Awesome, Scott, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Thank you Mark.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Great to talk with you.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
What do you think of Alexa Plus? Would you use it?
Let me know on social media or if you prefer email,
let me know what you think. I'm on all the
big social platforms. Just search for me by name, It's
Mark Saltzman, Mark with A C SA L t z
M A N or Mark Saltzman dot com and you
can send me a note privately if you prefer that
over social media. But curious to know what you thought
(16:32):
if this is something that you would use, and what
about the price at first? Truthfully, when I was in
the audience and they said it was going to be
nineteen ninety nine a month, there was a breath between
that comment and when they said, but free if you're
an Amazon Prime member. So I'm really happy they were
doing that because again, as I said in my interview
with Scott, and I do mean this that I think
(16:53):
it's a no brainer. It's a great service, well worth
the money in my opinion, and now with Alexa Plus,
but I'm glad that there may it free if you're
already a Prime member. So that's my two cents for
what it's worth, all right. As I mentioned, the Amazon
interview was just one of three on today's Tack it Out.
So when we return after this short break, we're going
to catch up with nob that's Nobnobi dot Life if
(17:16):
you want to check out their website. This is a
smartlight for aging adults. We don't really say seniors anymore,
not that it's a negative term, but a bit outdated,
as my AARP editor has reminded me. And so this
is for those who are aging in place. They want
to live longer at home independently, and so it has
fall detection built into the lamp. Really cool stuff. Also
(17:37):
on today's tech it Out black Light, we're going to
hear about gaming accessories, a new chair for those who
like to get their game on console or PC gaming.
So we're going to learn about that brand it's black
and then Lyte and so a lot more tech it
Out to get to. Thanks for all the great feedback
from last week when I had Twitch on and their
partnership with NASA. I was told that I was saying
(18:00):
the word wrong NASA like Nasau Bahamas and so I
had a nice listener in Tennessee correct me. So thank
you for that. So yes, it's NASA not Nasau. All right,
more check it out coming right up after this want.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
To follow Mark Google up Mark with Az and Saltzman
with a Z breaking down geeks beak into street speak.
This is check it out. Check it out with technology columnist, author,
(18:36):
and TV personality Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Welcome back to check it out. As you likely know,
the population is aging due to the Baby Boom generation
those born between nineteen forty six and nineteen sixty four.
Fun fact, by twenty thirty, all boomers will be sixty
five and older, and with this shift comes different priorities
in the home. To help our loved ones agent place
(19:00):
is the phrase aging in place, living longer independently at home.
Today we're going to hear about smart lights that do
much more than provide illumination. Joining us from the AI
powered company Nobi to explain is It's co founder Roland Pilgrims.
Welcome to the show, Roland, good to chat with you, Hi, Mark,
Thanks for having me pleasure. I cover this space a
lot as a journalist writing for AARP and Zoomer in
(19:23):
Canada for the aging adult population. So with that in mind,
at a high level, tell us what NOB is all about.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Sure, Nobi is the smartest light in the world. We
like to empower caregivers and elderly with desirable technology and
we do that with faul detection, fault prevention, well being monitoring,
anything we can do basically to keep elderly safe and
caregivers happy. That's our mission and we do that impact
in a beautiful design light.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
All right. So NOB the company and the product is
called Nobi as well, which are these smart lights? Which okay,
got it, all right, And we'll unpack some of those
features in a moment. But I was curious know about
the company's mo So you're an age tech organization that
wants to leverage AI artificial intelligence to help aging people
live longer, independently and safely. Have you noticed, Roland, that
(20:11):
there is an increased focus on aging in place as
a trend overall.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
And I think this goes far beyond a trend. It
is it's a must. There is a tsunami of aging.
The result of that is an ever growing gap between
people that need care and caregivers available to deliver net care,
and that gap needs bridging. And at NOBE, we strongly
believe that that bridge is technology, and that technology should
be human and desirable technology, so stuff that you actually
(20:38):
buy not because you need it, but because you want it.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
And to be clear, a caregiver could be a family
member as well, right, doesn't that be a professional caregiver? Yeah,
like your aging mom or your granddad. You may not
be living with them, but technology can service that bridge,
as you called it, to ensure that your loved ones
are living safe and independent lives even when you're not
with them physically exactly. Yeah, So let's hear a bit
more about Noby's solutions. Okay, so these are smart lights.
(21:03):
When I hear smart lights, I think of, you know,
an app or a voice controlled light that you can
turn on or off or maybe dim. But yours goes
above and beyond that which you've already hinted at, including
fall detection. Can you elaborate.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Yeah, Basically, what we've done is we've taken a beautiful
LUMINAI and we've stuffed that with technology. So that's sensors,
that's computing power, that's connectivity, that's also sound, And with
that collection of sensing and computing power, we delivered function.
Now do you have to think about us really like
an iPhone that you glued to the ceiling on which
we deploy various apps, and one of those apps is
(21:36):
fall detection, but it really goes beyond that.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
As a journalist, I've covered millimeter wave technology where you
don't have to wear a pendant or a smart watch
to detect a fall uses Wi Fi if I'm not mistaken,
and so are your smart lights similar in the sense
that you don't have to wear anything because you may
forget to wear something that can detect a fall, or
the batteries may need a charge and therefore it's not
going to work. So is that similar?
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Yeah, and you're absolutely right. The goal is to transform
dumb and blind environments in smart and connected rooms that
care for you. And the technology that we use is
actually optical sensors. And the reason we do so is
because perfection matters. You know, if any solution that gets
engineered achieves a let's say fall detection reliability of ninety
(22:22):
five percent. Then that is an outstanding engineering accomplishment, but
it's not an operational success because that would mean that,
let's take an average senior living community, that technology will
result in seventy phone calls per day to a front
desk for events that never happened. And what I think
sets us apart from any other solution out there is
our goal standard technology performance today we still have in
(22:45):
our entire install base is zero percent false negatives rate.
And what that means mark is that it has never
happened that someone fell in an ob observed room that
we didn't see. And that's really key because if you
want to be impactful in care, you need to approach
perfection and that's what we're trying to do with our
technology choice.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
We're chatting with Roland Pilgrims. He's co founder of a
company called Nobi. This is an age tech company that
manufacturers and sells these smart lights that do a lot
more than just provide illumination for a room. It can
detect a fall. So that's the primary benefit along with light,
of course is fault detection.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yeah, and fall detection is keys where it all started.
But what we like to do even more obviously is
fault prevention and we have actually great results there. In
a case study that we did in UK, we've been
able to reduce falls by eighty four percent. If you
look in the communities that we serve in the US,
we're around fifty one percent of falls that we reduce,
and that's amongst others, like you mentioned, thanks to light.
(23:45):
Light matters. It's a source of well being but also
a source of safety. Give you an example, Mark. Imagine Mark,
your grandfather at night wants to get out of bed
right the light will immediately see that that intention of
leaving the bed and will go on with a soft,
dimmed light, not so much to wake him up, but
to make sure that he has visual reference. As soon
as he leaves the bed completely, light goes on full
(24:06):
force so that your grandfather can go to the bedroom
after its return to bed and the lamp will shut down.
Those functions are actually from intervention perspective, pretty simple turn
the light on when it's needed. But from a tech perspective,
they're super advanced because you need to make very sure
that whenever you intervene is when people really have the
(24:26):
intention of leaving the bed, but always when they have
the intention to leave the bed. And that's really I
think where the magic lies is to provide technology support
whenever it is needed, but only when it's needed. We
want to be very much like Superman. Ninety nine percent
of time we're just Clark Kent, but when you need us,
temporarily put on funny pants and a cape.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Nice reference there, Roland. Okay, So fall prevention falls under
the illumination part of things. So the better the light,
the less likely that you may fall, trip, what have you.
And the ai I guess is the detection that you're
just moving around in bed. You want to soft light
versus a brighter light when you need guidance to get
to a bathroom, for example. Is that fair?
Speaker 4 (25:08):
Yeah, So we run our AI models on the light
and that local processing is actually quite important from a
privacy perspective. So the way the solution works is we
take data in all the time and in a process
that we call real time anonymization, we translate all that
data in abstract stick figures, and our AI analyzes the
behavior of those stick figures in real time not only
(25:31):
to see if someone has fallen yes or no, but
also if they're in the out of bed in the bedroom,
how long they're in the bathroom, how well they are sleeping,
et cetera. So the profile you get out of that
is really a pretty complete but privacy safe well being
report that helps care givers indeed professionals, but also family
members to take care of their loved ones the best
(25:52):
way possible.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I'm fascinated by technology like this that seems at least
sounds like it is virtually invisible, but it can do
its thing without being hard to use or anything like that.
So we're going to learn more about nob lights when
we return. I know this is a topic that is
especially of interest for those with aging parents, as I do. Truthfully,
(26:14):
my folks are in their eighties, and so stick with me.
More tech it out coming right up after this.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Breaking down geek speak into street speak. Check it out.
Holosted by Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Welcome back to the program. A few more minutes with
Roland Helgrims, He's co founder of an AI powered company
called no Bnobi, to tell us about its smart lights
or smart lamps. Just continuing the thought before the break,
can this be tweaked like, let's say your aging parent
is living with a partner and the partner is still
(26:57):
sleeping though you want to go to the bathroom the
bright lights to turn on for the entire bedroom. Is
there a way that you can tweak it, like via
an app?
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Yeah, and that's that's actually a very interesting question mark
the big challenge I think with technology and definitely if
you want to build it like we do with a
with a very strong focus on design and desirability is
often not so much technical feasibility but desirability. So can
we indeed make sure that light is on or off
depending on the preferences of those residents, of those that
(27:29):
couple living together. Absolutely, And then the big challenge is
not that from a tech perspective, but from a user
experience perspective. How do you make sure that the preferences
of those people are captured in a really, really comfortable
way so that they can actually use it? And that's
less about technology performance, it's really about UIX and UI design,
(27:49):
and that's something that we kind of obsess over.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Okay, yeah, well, especially for that age group, it has
to be easy to use. And I'm going to ask
you about set up in a moment before I let
you go, But first just to play Devil's Advocate Roland.
I mean, one of the benefits of having this technology,
I would think is that you don't need to wear
anything or have it charged up in order to detect
a fall, like an Apple watch or a you know,
a Phillip's Lifeline pendant or something like that. But the downside,
(28:12):
if I may, is that it's limited to the room
that the light is in. So if you don't have
them throughout the entire home, or you go out for
a walk and you fall, this may not protect you absolutely.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
And that's also why our philosophy is really a philosophy
of combination. So we don't have anything against wearables. We
just know that in house their adoption is relatively low
and that very often wearables don't succeed in detecting the
events that they're supposed to detect. There was a study
in UK where the oldest elderly, so ninety five and older,
(28:46):
when they were on the floor and they had one
of those panic buttons and they had an alarm system
that they could press that verified Okay, how often are
they able to do that? And basically eight out of
ten were unable to do so, And that's a pretty
dramatic result. Do I like wearables absolutely, they're on the skin,
they can give great information and when you're outside with
(29:07):
location tracking, that can be super valuable information. Indoors, however,
we notice that the performance is just not strong enough
to be one hundred percent sure that your parent or
your grandparent is actually safe. And if you want to
change the way you deliver care, you need this one
hundred percent certainty. So do we like wearables absolutely? Great
(29:28):
source of additional information and a perfect complement for outdoors.
Would we rely on them solely for indoor monitoring and
optimization of care? No? Absolutely, not fair?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Thank you for that, all right? And then as we
wrap up Roland, is this something that's difficult to set up? Like?
Is it a special bulb? You called it a lamp,
so that implies there is more hardware than the light itself.
And how much are we talking about here? Is it
sold in packs in case you want them in different
parts of the home, that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Yeah, The obsession with design and zirability is not only
from the perspective of the people that I have to
look at it. So we don't only want to design
beautiful object. We also want that desirability to be true
for installation partners, technicians and what have you. So we
have invested quite a lot in a light that is
super easy to mount. So if you can mount an
(30:17):
it a light, then you can mount a Nobe light.
It's that simple.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
So you don't need professional installation. It is a DIY
or off the shelf solution.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
We don't recommend it actually because much more important than
the installation of the hardware is the proper use and
the adoption of the technology, and people that embrace Nobi
usually have a good reason to do so. It's either
because they fail for the first time, they're worried about
their loved ones, and the fact that we try to
bring peace of mind is something that we strongly associate
(30:46):
with a professional onboarding. So could you install it by yourself? Sure?
From a tech perspective, should you? Well? From an ideal
user experience perspective, we prefer to send in nob experts
that can guide you through that entire process. Today Obi
works always with professional partners, so people that are used
to deliver technology in people's.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Hopes, approximately, how much do they start at and where
can we learn more?
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Nobi is oney three hundred and ninety nine for the
smart light, and we have a smaller sibling, Nobita, which
we use in bedrooms, in toilets, et cetera. That is
at six ninety nine. And if you want to learn
more about NOB then just go to www dot nob
dot lif and that is life with an.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
F all right, so it's Nob dot lif, so NBI
dot lif to learn more. Our guest has been Roland Pelgrims.
Thanks so much for your time. Roland appreciate it. Thank you,
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Mark.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Just as I asked for your feedback after the Amazon
Alexa plus interview, I'd like to hear from you what
you think of NOB, either in concept or the price.
Maybe you've already used it, by the way, they also
work with retirement homes long term care facilities. But I
really sort of build that intervie you as a solution
to aging in place, and so I focused almost exclusively
(32:05):
on the fact that we may have aging parents who
may want to live longer at home independently, and so
as a remote caregiver someone not living with them, how
this can help them as well. But they also have
some partnerships with retirement homes and the like, so it
would be remiss for me not to at least acknowledge that.
And there's a service as well as service fee, a
monthly fee that is all outlined on the website nob
(32:28):
dot life, Nobi dot l I f E. But let
me know what you think. I'm on x and Facebook, Instagram, threads,
blue Sky, LinkedIn YouTube, TikTok, or you can hit me
up on my website Mark Saltzman dot com, Mark with
a C, saltsman with a Z, and let me know
what you think of this. When we return on tech
it out, we're going to get our game on and
(32:49):
talk with black Light. This is a company that has
some gaming chairs and other accessories. Speaking of which, don't
forget about storage. You want fast SSD solid state eight drives,
whether external or internal solutions for your PlayStation, your Xbox,
your laptop or desktop. I always trust sanddisk SanDisk dot com.
All right, we'll be right back with more. Check it out.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, listen
to check it out whenever you want.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Computer gamers often look to buy accessories for their setup,
like wireless headsets, you know, for private listening or to
trash talk others online. Or maybe gamers want fast and
comfortable mice and keyboards to give them an edge over
the competition. Of course, there are monitors with fast refresh rates,
but what about gaming chairs and desks. Well, here to
(33:49):
tell us all about a new brand, black Light. We're
joined by Alex lou He's the founder of the company.
Hi Alex, thanks for your time today. Hey Mark, thanks
for having us. For those unfamiliar with black Light, and
we should tell our listeners, it's one word and light
is spelled l yte, so it's all in Capital's black Light.
Tell us about the brand.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
I would say we are an integrated system that provide
an immersive experience for people who's into gaming, music, or
any type of entertainment. Or we can say our brand
is for the game changers, because not only for gaming industry.
Actually a lot of office users can benefit from our brand.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Also, thanks for explaining that it's also for other kinds
of entertainment as well as those who work in office
as well. So with that in mind, Alex, tell us
about some of your more popular products.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
So the two product that we're launching the market right
now is our gaming chair and gaming desks. We have
the Theena giming chair right now and at us table,
I can tell you a little bit from the chair first, yeah, please,
a little bit over a year and a half developed
industrare to solve the back pain problem that happens to
a lot of gamers and office users. We spend a
lot of development power into the ergonomic design. We do
(34:57):
have a lumber support combined with our me foam to
give the best support to the back. And then also
we use aluminum base for more lightweight design. And then
we use a level three piston which supports a maximum
of one hundred and fifty programs should be covering majority
of the population. We did use a rollerblade casters which
(35:17):
protects your floor, doesn't damage anything. And then we have
a forty armrest which can change the direction of the
armrest that can use for mobile gaming, IPI use on
the chair, lounging or different situations. And also you have
a newly developed texture that is we can call it.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
The Vegan wall.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
That's very scheme friendly and very different from our competitors
for the gaming deaths. That's where all the juice comes in.
We can't just say a desk is probably more a
modular platform, I would say, so we do have our
own design chip and module built in into the desk,
powered by our own graphic algorithm and audio algorithm analytics.
(35:59):
So basically we're analyzing the in screen data, take data
from the game, convert them into lightning signal.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Whoa, whoa, Okay, this is really cool. Okay, so you
got to explain this part. So the chair and the desk,
and I know you don't need to have both, it'll
work with either one. They plug into computer or video
game console.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
Correct, correct, So we run the software within the console
or PC, analyze the data, and then it can sync
to the other devices. That's why I said we're an
integrated brand because not only sync to our product, we
also open bridge to a lot of different brands, which
is in the development right now. I can't really claim
what name they are, but you guys will see start
(36:42):
seeing stuff on the news.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
All right. So just to be clear, the chair and
the desk they plug into the computer. I guess through USB.
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (36:50):
So the table or the chip plug into the computer
by HDMI.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Oh htmi, yes, and then it synchronizes with that game
content for lighting and sound or just lighting.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
Lighting and sound.
Speaker 5 (37:02):
That's why I said it's also for the music producers
because with the audio algorithm, we can analyze the tone,
the pitch of different sound and create a light show
for any type of music you listen to.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Okay, very cool. So they're speakers inside of the chair
and in the desk.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
In the chair at the moment. No, we do have
a developments with light building into the.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Chair, multicolored lights like multicolored RGB RGB IC. You already
know we are chatting with Alex Liu. He is founder
of a company called black Light. It's one word b
l A c k l yte and they are the
folks behind the Athena and Atlas gaming chair. And don't
call it a desk, Let's call it a battle station. Correct.
(37:43):
So I was going to ask you, I know that
there are some other high tech chairs and desks. What
would you say make the black Light products more unique
compared to your competition.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
For the chair, It's more like a companion product to
the table or for the whole system. Is succeed the
competitor's quality in the market and offers the best value
for the customer for the table. From the conversation, you
already know basically we don't really have a competitor in
the market right now. We are open up a new
field that no one is in right now.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Could this work with a video game console like a
PlayStation five and Xbox Series X or Nintendo Switch.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
Yes, PS five, Nintendo's Xbox that requires a different hub
to analyze the data. It does link to the like too,
so you can go directly visit our website. Go black
Light dot com. G O B L A s k
L y T dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Great, all right, Go black Light dot com. Alex. Great
to chat with you, wishing you much luck and success
with the black Light brand for gamers and entertainment seekers.
Thanks again, Thank you man with all the best, and
thank you for tuning in to check it out everyone.
Hope you enjoyed this show. We talked about Alexa Plus
from Amazon coming in late March to start Nobi with
(38:53):
smart lights with fall detection and black Light as well.
All the best everyone, have a great rest of your
and I'll chat with you next weekend for a brand
new episode of check it Out. Bye bye for now.
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