The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 35: Feb/March 2018 | Page 25

TECHNOLOGY On the ojo Tech Couch ojo-2400x879.pdf ojo solutions is a leading digital and technology transformation specialist, helping businesses navigate the technology landscape and delivering cutting edge technological solutions. C M Y CM MY CY CMY K 1 20/10/2015 09:58 ojo solutions MAKING TECHNOLOGY WORK Throughout 2018, ojo is inviting local business people to join them on the ojo Tech Couch to discuss all things tech, from the latest trends to digital transformation. This issue team ojo look at the latest cutting edge technologies showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas 9-12 January 2018. Once proved useful to consumers, many of the products migrate to enterprise, some eventually revolutionising the way we do business. Who’s on the couch? Solutions Alchemist at ojo. Got an idea? Nathan work’s with you to make it happen. Nathan Baranowski Kevin head’s up the ojo front-end development and creative team, translating business ideas into beautiful solutions. Tom’s head of the ojo development team. He has the ability to make the impossible, possible. Tom Passmore Fingerprint tech became more mainstream at CES. It’s not just Apple integrating this technology into their products now, with manufacturers such as HP demonstrating their new HP Spectre laptop. In your opinion, what does this mean for tech security? Kevin Triggle Oli Thomas Voice Assistants and start speakers were everywhere from Amazon’s Alexa, to Cortana, Google Assistant and Siri. The tech was being used in light switches, showers and mirrors. How do you think Voice Assistants will impact the workplace of the future? Oli Kevin Tom Nathan Oli In theory, this is a great thing and will make ease of access and authentication to devices much quicker and streamlined. However, it’s been proven a very easy method to fool, unless the underlying tech improves it could lead to more problems than benefits. Unless people go around chopping off others fingers, this security tech can only be a good thing. It will hopefully stop poor quality passwords, the constant need to create new ones and data getting into the wrong hands. It is important to get this tech right though, I have read of cases where people have managed to fool this security and it needs to be of good enough quality before it becomes trusted and mainstream. Years ago, when the first ThinkPads had fingerprint tech it wasn’t very sophisticated and you could hack the files stored on the machine, but this technology is getting better and better. I use fingerprint technology on my iphone and don’t think twice on security. We use it to access doors in buildings so why not a laptop? The “what you know” method of authentication (AKA passwords) has been common place for decades because the hardware for “what you have” (or biometric) readers such as fingerprint scanners has not been readily available. Assuming (and it is a big assumption!) the readers work correctly, biometric data is more secure than a password – and it can’t be forgotten! Kevin Nathan Kevin Oli As an accountant using various “fin-tech” applications, I will see an improvement in security and ease of use across these platforms, as will many other professional services fields. I can already send bank transfers using my fingerprint as authentication as an example. Why not walk into a reception area and be greeted by a chat bot? Why not gain personal assistance in a meeting room too? Most of us in business at some point have to talk to an IT service desk, raise a repair job or ask for something. Chat bots can do all of this and most likely better than us humans. For me the success of voice assistants will come with considering customer experience within the workplace. Cloi (pronounced Chloe), demonstrated a robot live on stage who failed to respond, making it look as though the product wasn’t ready to market. What can we learn from this? Kevin Tom How do you think this may impact your work/ future design and user simplicity? Implemented correctly, it should mean we can do away with ugly and intrusive login boxes which would greatly improve the user experience. In the workplace, I can see things like Alexa starting to be used more for things like minute taking during meetings, organising and adding to calendars and even helping people prioritise their work for the day. Nathan This also happened at the latest Apple iPhone X demo when the face unlock didn’t work. I think if the tech concept is good enough, people will forgive an unsuccessful early demo. Robots only do what their human creators tell/teach them to! Never work with children, animals, or robots? These things are at the show for a reason, they are cutting edge and until their true potential is realised they will probably fall into the fad side rather than being truly useful. The issue with being too early to the party is that consumers lose confidence in the tech and then it may be harder to get these sort of products into the mainstream. CES is about showcasing future tech. Robotics and AI is still very much in its infancy and R&D is about getting things wrong. I don’t think we should read too much into it, nor should we expect robots to be taking over our jobs in the next few years either. Oli is a director of accountancy firm Purple Lime and is passionate about using tech to aid business intelligence and growth There is a poignant saying within the tech industry, one which I happen to agree with; if you release something you are 100% happy with, you are releasing it too late. It takes many versions to get to the finished article and markets/consumers accept this to a certain extent. The key is getting the balance right and I know Cloi’s creators will be disappointed with the non-performance. What product excited you the most at CES 2018? Kevin Tom Oli Nathan The HTC Vive Pro headset. The original Vive was very good and this upgrade looks fantastic. Not just for gaming but for VR in general. The gaming world often steers and dictates which tech is successful prior to it becoming really mainstream and I think it’s starting to show that the potential for high quality VR in all industries is huge. A simple one I quite liked was Travis translator – a portable device that uses AI to translate speech in 80 languages all in less than 2 seconds. Just imagine a universal translator that can fit into your pocket and we are boldly going into Star Trek territory! A company called Roader are developing a wearable camera that will allow the user to record 10 seconds prior to pressing the record button – never miss an important moment again! It reminds me of a film called Déjà vu – it is worth a watch for the concept raised alone. For me it was more of a surprise of disappointment. In many respects, there wasn’t anything that new. The biggest surprise felt like the lack of advancement and reality that robotics is really still in the R&D phase and AI is still more hype than reality. For more info: www.ojosolutions.com @ojosolutions Want to join ojo on the next Tech Couch? Or do you have a question to ask our tech experts? If so, get in touch. Drop us a line, give us a call or tweet us using the hashtag #makingtechnologywork or Email: [email protected] or call: 01225 300043 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2018 25