Cable company 30 years ago and brought to you by local service or satellite provider. About a year into fruition. It started about, well, it started around president obamas Climate Data Initiative and particularly a call with the United States department of agriculture to promote data openness that the government has to deal with Food Security and resiliency of the food systems in the United States. So what weve been building is what we call at the moment the farm data dashboard. What we wanted to do was really this data portal for a lot of important data sources about agriculture and Production Statistics in the United States. So a lot of these [inaudible] but in a disparate world that kind of the online ether. And so we wanted to bring that a all together and make it easy for anybody from just an interested public to a busy small farmer all the way to engineers and professional developers to access the data and start using them in ways that would be powerful for them. So what weve done is weve brought four of the usdas more important data sets together, and weve done this all on microsoft Cloud Computing platform. A lot of the services that are available within that as well. The first thing that were doing is were just allowing raw data downloads. So you can see you can go and simply download the raw data, bring those on to your personal Computing Platform and do whatever you want with them in true opendata. Gov fashion. However, we understand that a lot of people might not want to have to deal with trying to understand them, deal with them. So weve provided a nice user interface as well thatll do dynamic sorting, for instance. Here im saying im going to want to get the area harvested of corn in the United States, and im going to ask it to do that in the state of alabama when this actually comes back as a service host and so you can figure out how many acres of corn were planted in alabama . Guest yep. Host is that that youre going for here . Guest yep, exactly. One of the things the service will allow you to do is to be able to pull those data down and look at trend lines over time, for instance, and plot out how things have been looking both in acres harvested, planted and then the yield of different crops, particularly around the six commodity crops in the United States. So i can show you here one of the things that you could do is simply get data here, and we would display a table. Lets see if that actually that didnt work for us. [laughter] one of the things that i want to highlight here is that one of the big difficulties in dealing with a lot of these open data initiatives is that these data are from multiple different services, and the way you can access them is widely different across different government agencies. What we wanted to do here is allow people to figure out how to access [inaudible] so every time im clicking on one of these links, you can see this url here is changing. And that means i can simply copy and paste this link here, and it will bring down data in the exact same manner as what ive done through clicking on this user interface. And once ive done that, i can go offline, for instance, and i can use very [inaudible] data science [inaudible] so in this instance im pulling down all the information from the usda from this web site for the past hundred years on Production Statistics with the six main commodity crops in the United States. Im just doing a few little lines of code here to put the data together, and in one line im going to implement something called the [inaudible] where im going to predict how much corn is going to be planted next year based solely on the other crops harvested this year. So we can look at the Production Practices that we know happened this year and allow us to give that an inference about what might happen nationally next year. So you can see that in this rough visualization that ive built here where im plotting out the trend in the amount of area for each of these six main crops that was harvested in each given year. And heres in my black line you can see that im plotting out how much corn was planted in each year. And this red line is the result of this is my prediction. Its the result of my model. And you can see its doing a fairly good job. Particularly, you know, its smoothing out a lot of the data jumps and things like that, and its giving you a jenin sight into what a general insight into what might happen next year. The more we pull into this service, the better these models will be able to become. And so as we grow this dashboard, i think the capability of what people will be able to produce by accessing it is only going to increase. Host whats the benefit to microsoft to developing this guest so the benefit to microsoft is really so im a researcher, and im really interested in understanding how we can make our products better for large consumers. And the interesting thing about dealing with agencies like the department of agriculture is that some of their day the data are big, and theyre heterogenous. Theres a lot of variety in the kinds of data they contain. So to have to think hard and creatively about how good you built that onestop solution for people to be able to access and analyze a very large, disparate set of data across the United States, thats really interesting. But solving those problems is whats going to help microsofts products get better. Im just happy to be able to work on a project that if we solve those problems, it solves a few challenges for microsoft, but also for the United States. Host do you have an agricultural background as well . Guest i dont have an agricultural background, although i did graduate from a college of agriculture and Life Sciences at the university of wisconsinmadison. Im from northern wisconsin, have lived on farms for a large part of my life while i wasnt an active farmer. You know, a very keen interest in it. As shall be with a background in environmental science, it is impossible to ignore the agricultural sector. Host and now joining us [inaudible] roseway of microsoft. Whats your job . Guest im a design researcher. We work in areas of effective computing. We are able to detect emotions from your physiological [inaudible] and were able to play those emotions through crystals or things that you wear, or we can notify you of things gown on on going on on your body. Host how long has this technology been in development . Guest i would say for the past three years. Host so is im wearing this little bit here. Guest yes. Host are these things pretty primitive as compared to shiny spark over here . Guest yeah. Its still fairly early, but paul and i have been able to couple our bands, so he knows when im stressed, and i know when hes stressed. So we can actually be notified if our spouse or our parent or child is in an unusual state. So as you can see, i can see his heart rate host and this is your husband . Guest no, this is my colleague. Host all right. Guest right. So this is just the next level of awareness, right . Besides calorie tracking and step count, we can also start to monitor those we lo, right we love, right, or care about. And because this is being fed through bluetooth, through the cloud, through the phone, i can be across country, he can be on the other side. I might have an ailing parent on the east coast, i live on the west coast. If somethings going on with her, ill know that. Host what are we looking at . Guest okay. So when i get notified, my band goes off. But in the future we can actually provide that awareness on your body on fabric, right . So i just got buzzed. But this enabled us to get buzzed remotely as well. So, for instance, i may just turn this on. This is our ui host i can hold it. Guest yeah. Im going to power it on. Hopefully, the battery hasnt died. Fabrics will be intelligent enough to actually receive the data we send it, right . So if im stressed out, my fabric can soothe me with heat or vibration, things that i want it to do. So im going to turn it on, and hopefully itll turn on here, and each one of these is a module. So it provides vibration or heat. Host what are we looking at when we see these little modules . Whats contained in this . Guest these are little microprocessors that tell these actuators to vibrate. And theres a master brain behind it. So it sends signals to these, and it turns them on. Host not wanting to play. Guest its because its been on for a few hours, and as soon as a you guys show up, it always dies. Hes getting notified right now. We designed this so that people can basically customize what they need in cases of stress. Do they want to be heated up, do they want to be warm, do they want vibration. This has been specifically designed with people with visual impairment, audio impairment where they can use the extra layer of notification to relate them know to let hem know that things are going on around them. Host what about heartbeat monitors, are those contained as well . Guest ing this is actually more of outputs. What you are talking about would be input, and you can send it to that scarf. So if your heart rate goes up, your scarf can turn on and calm you down with heat or vibration, right . So this is just an output for all the things you might be wearing. Thats kind of the idea. Host so whos blue and shiny over here. Guest okay. So in the north we live in climates that sort of, you know, like seattle that we lack certain sunlight. So seasonal effective disorder is something thats pretty prevalent especially in northern climates, and sir canadian rhythm disorders have been associated to moodiness, overeating and depression. The blue light therapy is actually a therapy thats used with a light box, and you get zapped with blue light. And it gets your brain into thinking its actually more daylight than it is. Weve been able to take the same blue light spectrum at a lower intensity so that its wearable and portable. Instead of being stuck behind a box and looking like a dork, you can look pretty fashionable, right . And it would probably raise the notion of people wearing it more often because youre not stuck behind the box. So you can actually see it for yourself. So were just using fiber optics to diffuse the light host just wall on one side. Guest yeah. And you can wrap yourself in light. So you feel better, you look better. It is how to take really basic technology and start integrating them into new scenarios like this to alleviate a pretty serious problem. Host how far away are these from commercial guest i would say three to five years. Host why that far . Guest primarily power consumption. Thats always going to be the issue of batteries. But also wear blght and durability. This is not something you throw in the wash, right . And also, if you feel it, its still a little coarse. So people are sensitive. They want things that are soft. So its just going to take a few more years to get is this integrated into soft fibers, and by then the Power Sources might come from other places like solar or body. Host where did the idea come from . Guest so i have seasonal effective disorder. Ive had to stand behind those light boxes, and i hate it. I cant go anywhere, i cant move, and im like why am i tuck behind a box when i can just put it in fabric . It was a personal thing for me. I would love to wear this and not be tethered to a box, so why not . So it was personal. Thats where that came from. Earlier this year the communicators visited ces international in las vegas and learned about Technological Developments worldwide as well as about robots. Host well, one of the exinner thes here is alibaba. Com, sunny shack rah is with the chabra is with the company. What is alibaba. Com . Guest we work with businesses of all sizes from all over the world, and we help them connect with manufacturers, suppliers, distributers, Trading Companies from all over the world. Host now, hasnt it been described as the google of china . Is that a fair description . Guest i would say google is more of a Search Engine. When it comes to business to business, we can be described as business. You simply type in what youre looking for in the search field, and most likely youll find someone out there who can actually make it. Host recently an ipo here this the u. S. Guest yes, yes. Host so its a Public Company now. And do you manufacture anything . Do you make anything . Guest we do not make anything. We simply help connect buyers with buyers. Think of us as a b to b Search Engine where businesses of all sizes, whether youre a entrepreneur Small Business or a large enterprise, you can come and find manufacturers and distributers all over the world. Host give us an example of who would use your product and how they would use it. Guest absolutely. Were at ces, and some of our suppliers just to give folks a taste of who we are and what we do. One of our suppliers here is a Company Called ipad. They have an interesting story. It was a person out of new york. He was a journalist, and he had an idea for a product. Found alibaba. Com, had his product created, and now hes actually selling on alibaba. Com. Its a success story. You can come to our platform p find manufacturers, get your idea created and eventually become a supplier on the platform and sell your product back to others who might be looking for Something Like that. Host how many years has alibaba been in existence . Guest since 1999. The u. S. Is actually the biggest market for us outside of china. The Company Started in china back in 1999 founded by jack ma, and u. S. Has been the biggest market for us since then. Host all right. You do have some products such as life smart. What is it . Guest one of our suppliers. Ces is a great platform because folks come here looking for the new products that are going to be big in consumer electronics. Alibaba doesnt sell anything, but we wanted to bring some of our suppliers here to give attendees and businesses a taste of the type of products that they can find on alibaba and also put a face to the actual supplier they can find. These are folks all over the world selling products that people might be looking for, and thats what we wanted to give them a taste of. Life smart has Great Technology that can essentially make your home a smart home without wires. Host so lifesmart is a client of alibabas. Guest a supplier that anybody can find. Host where did mr. Ma come up with this idea . Guest he had an interesting idea. He actually came to the u. S. Back in the 90s, and at the time there wasnt anyone online in china. So he had a simple idea. We need to get suppliers from china who are producing a lot for the u. S. Online. How do we do that . Wouldnt it be great if we could put the suppliers online so anybody anywhere in the world can find them instead of traveling to china, making calls . We make it easy. Essentially are, that was our Mission Statement back then, making it easy for businesses to do business anywhere in the world, and thats what weve been focused on since day one. Host and it seems that year here at ces this is a lot more Chinese Companies overall exhibiting, have you noticed that as well . Guest i have. Again, when it comes to china, asia, consumer electronics, a lot of the components are being head in asia. But i think we like to look at it in a different way. The world is becoming a smaller place. Working with somebody in china when youre here in the United States, lets just say las vegas, its now easier than it ever was. You can get in touch with someone across the world, start doing business them and actually have your products delivered all within a matter of week when that used to be such a daunting task, and Companies Like alibaba, were making that a little easier. Were making the sourcing aspect a little bit easier, and thats what we hope to continue to do. Host and youre headquartered in the santa clara area. Guest our headquarters are this china. Host thanks for your time, appreciate it. Paolo pirjanian, what is irobot . Guest its the Robot Company that builds practical robots. We focus on robots for the home, we focus on robots for defense, and recently weeing focus on collaboration we focus on collaboration. Host why would somebody need a robot . What would they want a robot for . Guest they refer to the three ds, the dirty, dull and dangerous tasks, tasks that humans really dont want to do because its really tedious and boring. Wed rather spend our time doing more interesting things. So one of the areas we are well known for is rumba, the robotic vacuum cleaner. Who wants to push a broom around . Id rather spend my time with the family and kids rather than cleaning the floors. Host everybody, i think, has seen the video of the cats riding around on them. From the consumer point of view, is that the only kind of Consumer Product you make . You do more business to business . Guest we do a number of different floor cleaners. We do pool cleaners. We do gutter cleaners. Essentially, every area in the home where we think we can automate a task that people dont enjoy doing or its repettive, something you have to keep doing every time. And we will develop the technologies and the solution to deliver on that promise. Host so when it comes to defense, what kind of robots and and are you working with the pentagon on this . Guest ing so we work with dod and other government agencies. As you witnessed during the iraq war, there was a lot of bombs that were left on the roadside and so on, and you have to send people there very scary job to go and investigate the package and decimate it. And in those scenarios, youre putting people many harms way. We are delivering robots that can be remotely controlled to approach the packages, investigate them and, if necessary, detonate them. Worse comes to worse, you have a robot that got exploded, but it saved a life. Host michio kaku recently said that robots today are much like retarded cockroaches, his phrase, when it comes to the intelligence factor. Do you agree with that