What do the following have in common: Sniffy, TypeWise, Anura, VoiceTube, CarePredict TouchPoint, LG’s ThinQ AI webOS 6.0, Sabre personal safety app with pepper spray, Care4Ear, Clario Security and Goama Games?
All were launched or showcased during the first virtual edition of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week. This, apparently, is what the world needs now:
Sniffy
Sniffy Labs, a company focused on developing pet technology to improve the relationship between humans and animals, has introduced Sniffy – a dog training app that provides customised, professional, on-demand dog training support.
Sniffy Labs co-founder and president Howard Shyng says the app is programmed to create training plans tailored to each dog owner’s needs and to teach users proven methods to train dogs. It is backed by certified dog trainers and behaviourists.
Sniffy claims to create tailored dog training plans to teach dog owners how to train their dogs regularly at home. The app also helps dog owners track their training progress and maintain consistency through the entire training process.
The app’s training is based on setting a dog up for success while using positive-reinforcement and non-punishment-based training methods.
Customised training plans are offered. These help users set their training goals, such as obedience, agility, and behaviour correction, based on their needs and the dog’s condition. It also provides a daily routine that the owner and dog have to complete. The app adjusts the routine based on input regarding your dog’s performance in daily training sessions.
For those with more than one dog, Sniffy allows users to create multiple dog profiles, each with customised training plans.
Professional video tutorials are on tap to get dogs trained. Progress can be synchronised to additional smartphones so friends can bring them treats when they progress.
Platform: Android and iOS
Expect to pay: A free trial is offered.
Stockists: Visit Sniffy Labs here to get your doggo on their best behaviour.
TypeWise
Using a honeycomb keyboard layout, TypeWise claims to reduce typos by up to 80% and, due to the larger keys, increase typing accuracy. It promises that AI-driven autocorrect functionality increases typing speeds.
Many of the keys are multifunctional. For instance, should one hold down the ‘123’ key, numeric keys are shown. Holding down the same button and swiping up reveals a range of emojis.
The more TypeWise is used, the smarter it becomes, as it uses common phrases to build sentences from words in its dictionary. Much like predictive text, one taps out the first word, after which various others become available.
TypeWise takes some getting used to. However it offers tutorials and, should users get tired of it, they can switch back to their original, albeit less smart keyboard.
According to TypeWise, there were more than 500,000 downloads and over 130,000 active users in the first year of launch.
Platform: Android and iOS
Expect to pay: A free download but some word suggestions are only available on the pro version.
Stockists: Visit TypeWise here for downloading instructions.
Click below to read on about the best apps of CES 2021.
Anura
NuraLogix’s Anura is an AI-based app that promises contactless health tracking, including blood pressure measurements, only using a smartphone.
It also measures other physical, physiological and psychological indexes, including heart rate, stress levels, BMI, and cardiovascular disease risks with medical-grade accuracy (based on research and clinical studies).
This contactless measurement is made possible through Transdermal Optical Imaging (TOI) technology, with the use of a smartphone’s video camera.
NuraLogix claims its TOI is able to use light and the translucency of human skin to capture changes in blood flow. Using machine learning algorithms, it extracts facial blood flow information from the recording to model and detects the desired psychological, physical and physiological indices.
Captured data is then displayed on the app, where it can be saved for future comparison.
For personal use, Anura can be downloaded for free on iOS and Android devices. For commercial use, Anura offers a variety of solutions.
Platform: Android and iOS
Expect to pay: A free download
Stockists: Visit NuraLogix’s Anura website here for downloading instructions.
VoiceTube gets AI
Launched in 2013, VoiceTube claimed to create the biggest English language learning platform in Asia, with over four million registered users. Users can not only find English videos with subtitles but can also engage in a specially designed learning system for targeting learners.
VoiceTube uses a guided learning method, which hopes to make the language learning process more efficient by starting with input, imitation and then output.
The app claims to offer authentic English keyword selections, continued with repeated practice to improve on language comprehension, followed by interactive practices with corrections to achieve the users’ English learning goals.
How it works
On top of the learning method model, VoiceTube has created two functions to guide its users, including a dedicated editorial team and featured videos.
Through “fill in the blank” practices, VoiceTube creates repeated listening opportunities to help memorise vocabulary. Throughout the learning process users are able to collect achievement points by completing the designated tasks.
The latest edition includes artificial intelligence data analysis, which claims to work with VoiceTube’s video example sentences. Users are not only able to strengthen their memory on the vocabularies they have learned but also to extend their knowledge through technology generated vocabularies for a broader learning experience.
In order for users to navigate to their preferred content videos are categorised in various channels and levels, such as CNN, TOEIC, or TOEFL exams. VoiceTube also delivers three types of products targeting various levels of language learners: VoiceTube, VoiceTube Hero and VoiceTube Vclass.
Platform: Android, iOS and a computer with an up to date internet browser
Expect to pay: A free download
Stockists: Visit VoiceTube here to start learning English.
Click below to read on about the best apps of CES 2021.
CarePredict TouchPoint
During the pandemic, families have had to contend with not knowing how older friends and family are doing, due to the various lockdown levels.
CarePredict TouchPoint, an AI digital health platform with remote activity monitoring for senior care, was showcased at this year’s CES.
TouchPoint offers caregivers and facility members continuous visibility into a senior’s activity and behaviour patterns. In seniors, subtle changes in everyday activities such as eating, walking, cooking, sleeping and bathroom activities are known to precede health conditions like malnutrition, depression, and an increased risk of falling.
It also alerts families and nurses when there is a deviation from one’s “normal” activity patterns such as missed meals, restless sleep and increased inactivity.
The solution consists of a wearable that uses rechargeable batteries, so it never needs to be taken off to charge, unlike fitness trackers. All information tracked on the device is automatically sent to the app installed on a smartphone, allowing caregivers to alert ambulances in case of an emergency.
Platform: Android and iOS
Expect to pay: The entire solution costs R7 700
Stockist: Visit CarePredict here for ordering information.
LG ThinQ AI webOS 6.0
LG’s ThinQ AI webOS 6.0 for its 2021 OLED, QNED Mini LED, NanoCell and UHD smart TVs supports voice commands from Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
The OS also offers the most frequently used apps and content with the ability to receive recommendations, based on a user’s preferences and viewing history, on a newly-designed home screen.
Park Hyoung-sei, president of LG Home Entertainment, says: “To show recommended content and related information at one glance the TV’s redesigned home screen switches to a full-screen mode and acts as a central hub for settings and the webOS ecosystem.”
The new Magic Remote, with the integration of Magic Link, offers content related to what’s showing on-screen, allowing viewers to learn more about the actors, locations and other items of interest in the movies and shows they’re watching.
Platform: LG TVs running the ThinQ AI webOS 6.0
Expect to pay: No prices have been released yet.
Stockists: Visit LG here for more information.
Click below to read on about the best apps of CES 2021.
Sabre personal safety app with pepper spray
Sabre’s new personal safety app with pepper spray has been designed in partnership with Noonlight. It can be used independently or with the smart pepper spray, which will be available in April 2021.
The app allows one to alert five contacts that the user is in danger, and provides one’s location. It serves as a personal safety information hub with updated safety tips and content, as well as safety training videos to be added later this year.
Once paired with the app the pepper spray offers similar functionality, in that it notifies pre-selected contacts if the user’s spray has been used.
David Nance, CEO of Sabre, says: “Before using the spray users need to pair it to their smartphone via Bluetooth. The app then sends alerts to up to five assigned contacts through SMS upon deployment of the spray. The alert text message includes the user’s location, while geo-tracking continues to track the user following the initial “help” alert. If an alert is accidentally sent users can cancel it by entering a security PIN that they set up upon installation.”
Platform: Android and iOS
Expect to pay: The app will cost R75 per month. No cost has been released for the pepper spray yet.
Stockists: Visit Sabre here for more information.
Care4Ear
MIJ’s Care4Ear is a smartphone app claimed to help tinnitus patients by using self-hearing tests and self-tinnitus tests without the need for an audiologist.
To get started, one tests one’s hearing and then checks the frequency and intensity of a tinnitus sound. Based on the hearing test and tinnitus test results, users have a customised care sound profile created for them. Listening to this sound on daily basis may improve tinnitus.
The developers suggest listening to the tinnitus care sound for four hours a day for six months or more before any improvements are heard.
Platform: Android and iOS
Expect to pay: A free download
Stockists: Download the iOS app here and the Android version here
Click below to read on about the best apps of CES 2021.
Clario Security
The Clario platform is a consumer digital security and privacy solution which integrates software with tech experts.
Presently it will only help protect Mac, iPad and iPhone users, with Windows and Android versions in development.
Clario developers say the app offers real-time protection against digital threats (malware, ransomware, spyware), money loss, breaches of personal information and identity theft, device security and data privacy. It is backed by other security providers like BitDefender and NordVPN.
The app uses a personal security dashboard to help one understand what the software does without any technical jargon and should one get stuck, a support team is available to answer questions.
Platform: MacOS and iOS with Android and Windows 10 support coming soon.
Expect to pay: Visit Cairo here for pricing.
Stockists: Download the app here.
Goama Games
The number of online gamers is on the rise and due to hit around 3.5-billion, or about 45% of the world’s population. In addition, e-sports apps have been gaining traction because of Covid-19 pandemic-related lockdowns.
However. one of the biggest issues with these is that they are littered with adverts and in-app purchases. Goama gives its subscribers ad-free access to many top-rated games that would otherwise be too expensive to play.
Company representatives say that the platform offers 2,000 games in its library and regularly gives subscribers a rotating list of 400 games. Goama has provided a B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) model, through which partners such as digital payment app providers, telecom companies and on-demand delivery companies host games on their apps by embedding the Goama platform.
Goama CEO Taro Arayaclaims says: “When a user creates a mobile app they face two challenges. Not only does the app need to be compelling enough to earn a spot on the user’s home screen, it must also keep them engaged so that they continue using and interacting with it.
“Gaming is a key market, but many struggle to manage this, with content rights. Our solution aims to reduce the cost of acquisition and increase brand awareness.”
Platform: Any device with an up-to-date Internet browser.
Stockists: Click here to learn more about Goama Games.