Amid the Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, tech giant IBM presented its moves for its latest artificial intelligence platform. IBM announces its collaboration with several businesses, namely, Under Armour, Medtronic and SoftBank.
American sports clothing company Under Armour committed to devise a fitness tracking gadget through utilizing IBM Watson's technology. The partnership will allegedly create an all-in-one virtual coach, health consultant and fitness trainer among sports enthusiasts. This will go together with its tracking app UA Record.
The collaboration offered an evidence-based coaching system that can monitor users' sleep, fitness activity and nutrition. Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank revealed that in the past decade, his company was primarily focused on data collection, and now, it is shifting its roles. "This partnership will allow us to provide value back to the consumer in an unprecedented way," Plank said.
On the other hand, Japan's SoftBank Robotics Holdings' humanoid robot named Pepper will be getting its new digital comrade -- Watson. During the CES, IBM announced that Pepper will now be powered with Watson.
The company stated that this could help the interactive, emotion-reading robot to go off well of the complex and hidden meaning in data such as images, video and social media. And its artificial intelligence allows comprehending the world via senses, experiences and learning.
Pepper, which was released in the market last year, is able to analyze gestures, vocal tones and human expressions. With its Watson upgrade, it can continuously learn and keep new information.
IBM also revealed another interesting collaboration with Medtronic that could highly benefit people suffering with diabetes. Representatives from IBM explained that the Medtronic insulin pump powered by a Watson app can predict blood sugar changes 3 hours prior to the actual increase or drop. If true, this will buy time for people with diabetes to modify their diet to keep blood sugar level within the normal range.
The Watson software, as analysts would say, made the Medtronic device more useful. It is targeting to release Watson-powered products this summer. "The possibilities, if you think about the ability to improve the life for that patient, are really powerful," Deborah DiSanzo, head of Watson Health, said.
