Imagine Star Wars C3P0 and R2D2, imagine Wall.E and EVE, imagine Marvin the Paranoid Robot (from The Hitchiker's Guide to Galaxy?), David Swinton from A.I, Sonny from I,Robot, Data from Star Trek! Well some may argue that one or more of the listed are cyborgs, not robots, but hey, if some genius out there managed to build one, and build one for the consumer, aren't we all game for it? 

I'm sorry Google Glass, your capabilities really astound me but you're just too expensive for such a small device that achieves the same tasks as my Android smartphone can. Move over Siri, you're so uptight sometimes. Welcome Jibo, the world's first family robot. 

Cynthia Breazeal and Jibo

Created by MIT roboticist Cynthia Breazeal, Jibo is a finalised version of a work-in-progress, with developer and consumer version scheduled to be available sometime in 2015. OMG I can barely contain myself! It's finally here! 

It's not just a tool that you use, it's your helpful partner! 

Yeap, that is what sets Jibo so far apart from other consumer technology approaches for instance smart-homes etc. Implementing emotion and intuitiveness as the core of its design, Jibo "learn skills" rather than "installing apps". Of course the whole idea is to develop a platform on top of which developers can program skill algorithms and machine learning capabilities (hopefully), but consumers in general are not interested in those technobables. 

The initial skills that Jibo has are oriented towards coordinating a busy family, especially one that does not live together under the same roof, helping with communications and bringing contents to life such as warm and friendly greetings and reminders. A key feature was the camera as a social tool. Whereby with a physical camera be it a high end DSLR or a phone camera, it is a tool and you remove yourself from the action but with Jibo, it can help to take the photo for you without much hassle of finding a substitute person and everyone can be in with the action. 

The consumer wants a helper that integrates into their lives - managing the household to a certain extent for instance turning on the lights at night when someone walks into the room, changing the air-conditioning temperature, taking calls and messages and reading aloud emails and alerting scheduled items - and not just that, the consumer also wants to do all these with the feel of interacting with someone. 

Jibo is just that. In different instances Cynthia was quoted to say "putting a warm personality on a lot of the things that we use or apps for today" and "Jibo is one of the first of its kind to humanise way of relating and experiencing technology". It is capable of recognising individuals through visual (face recognition) and audio (voice recognition), a great way to personalise experience with Jibo itself. 

I am super excited that Jibo is going to be out in the consumer market soon, and that Cynthia has taken the crowdfunding route to collect funding for it. To keep up with the latest news on Jibo or to get one for yourself, visit www.myjibo.com or add the blog to your reading list at http://blog.myjibo.com/. You can also contribute to the Jibo project through IndieGoGo. 

In the mean time, check out this awesome introduction video of Jibo! 

*Disclaimer: Photo and Video are owned by respective owners. I do not claim them to be mine. 

Tag me if you can!! Hahaha! It was very random when a friend suddenly said "Let's play laser tag!!". There was only four of us at home that day, and so we all agreed. Laser tag is a new "in" thing in Kuching - having the first ever located in CityOne Megamall called Laser Raiders. 

Laser Raiders feature a 5,000 sq. ft. multilevel arena, and from what I can see, is a successful attempt to introduce a new, fun, and (somewhat) healthy indoor activity to Kuchinglites and visitors alike. According to the info, Laser Raiders Kuching has the best and largest in East Malaysia!! WOW! (then again, it is the only one so far, so yes, they can claim this title until...)

The game in itself in intense - added with special fog and glow effects, laser lighting and dark arena, each game, or mission, lasts roughly 10 minutes depending on the game, or mission type. And apparently, there are plenty to choose from ranging from beginner  to expert, for example basic individual shoot-and-tag with unlimited ammo and life, to Partners, Gladiator, Fugitive, and even Capture the Flag. Great platform for team-building activities. 

Being beginners, we tried the individual shoot-and-tag mission. Since there were only four of us, we were grouped together with about 6 more people to make it a party of 10. A note : it was a bad idea to wear a light-colored long sleeve - I was so easy to spot I ended up being last in the scoreboard. (well that, and I have bad aim AND practically blind in the dark). Still, it was a fun session!

Lemme show you some parts of the arena : (photo's from Groupon) 

Enlightened Mark!

Map Link : here

Created by linking 4 portals :

Respect, Relax, Respond. That is my most general motto. I've had the most unfortunate turn of event playing Ingress one night. I was at the Kuching Waterfront area. On any night, the crowd would be buzzing from between 6 to 11pm. I got there at about 8. It was drizzing a little bit, which was probably why the usual crowd was scarce. Even the buskers along the pavement sat and talked in their groups instead of singing their hearts out. 

I planned to make a couple of rounds of hacks that night. Halfway through, I was stopped by a random guy who wreaked of alcohol. I don't remember doing anything that attracts attention to myself. I didn't have my earphones as I fear I might miss any sound that alerts me of danger, I kept my phone in my hand and eyes up ahead where I was going. Somehow this drunk guy zeroed in on me and began asking question after question and repeating them in random orders. 

This is where I messed up tho. I should've left the scene promptly. I lingered long enough for his group of friends to catch up. I pocketed my phone and fished my car keys out in case I needed to protect myself. God knows being huddled by 5 drunk guys at night while it's drizzling, I fear my own safety. 

What went on in my head there and then was where is the nearest group of people, hopefully sober and helpful. If I needed to protect myself, I'll use the keys for weapon. If I need to run, where is the best direction. Lucky me a group of patrols passed by and no violence occurred. Still, that taught me a lesson. 

Keep yourself safe. Respect your environment, know the dangers and evaluate the need of self-preservation. Relax. Keep a cool mind. Calm down and control yourself. Finally, respond to the changes in your environment accordingly. Do not resort to violence unless if really necessary. 

And as a general rule, I can't emphasize on this any less, keep yourself safe!

Dude this post is so long overdue!! New portals are popping up like mushrooms after the rain. I like how especially in the city centre most of the portals are within walking distance from one another. I'd park my car somewhere, armed with my phone and a pair of earphones I'd go around hacking one portal after another. 

Managed to get up to level 4 on my own, but it is a very slow process. Levels in Ingress depend on collecting Action Points or AP. AP is collected by performing actions, such as hacking a portal, capturing a neutral portal, placing can completing all 8 resonators on the portal, creating fields, destroying resonators, neutralizing portals and destroying fields. 

Depending on your level and stock of resonators and XMP bursters, this can be easily challenging. There's also an issue of XM amount that you have as each action requires a certain amount of XM. 

The higher the access level, the more XM capacity you can hold. Currently at level 4, I can hold a maximum of 6k XM. Almost halfway through to access level 5. 

I've been wanting to create fields now, big ones. However, I choose to hold back a little, make sure I have all the portal keys I want and then BAM! Enlightened field everywhere! For now tho, my faction mates has created the biggest field in my area ever!!

" INGRESS! The fate of the world lies in the palm of your hand. Tip the balance with the tips of your fingers. Walk to embrace change for humanity, or walk to defend humanity from invasion! Pick your faction, dive into the action! "

If you're into Augmented Reality (AR), this is THE app for you. Developed by Google's very own NianticLabs, it is essentially a game. In a nutshell, you play as part of two factions, one embraces the change for humanity called the Enlightened, and the other opposes and considers it as an invasion, called Resistance. I myself have only played it recently, but find it deeply absorbing. You literally have to walk around to collect Exotic Matters or XM used to capture "portals" scattered across the world. 

Ingress is categorized as an AR-based MMORPG. Since it is developed by Google for Android platform, you will need an Android device to play it. Now you may be intimidated by the fact that it is an AR game and you may need high end devices to play, but don't worry - a lot of  devices can support this game. There is no heavy graphical processing going on at the background. You do need at least Gingerbread (Android version 2.3) and above to play it, and good internet connection with WiFi and GPS support is recommended.  

As I've mentioned earlier, the main objective in Ingress is to capture as many portals as you can, and link them together to form a field that may span across a small area, or as large as inter-cities. I could imagine it spanning across states and countries even. Since it is an MMORPG, you will be playing as part of either one of two factions - namely Enlightened and Resistance. (To be totally fair, I will not be mentioning which faction I'm playing for, although it is tempting to recruit my readers as part of my faction)

Portals are usually unique landmarks, buildings with historical or architectural value or importance, should be highly accessible and is a permanent fixture of the area. Some of them include arches, water features, public transit stations, entrances signs etc. Some of the portals in Kuching are shown in pics. There are more in the Peninsular, especially KL and Johor, as well as the neighbouring Singapore. 

When you're near a portal, you can hack it to get items. If a portal is neutral (Grey color in the game), you can deploy Resonators to capture it for your Faction (Blue represents the Resistance, Green represents the Enlightened). You can link portals together with a portal key obtained randomly as you hack portals, and attack enemy portals to force it back to a neutral state and then recapture it.

The most interesting aspect of the game is that you will be walking around from one portal to another. You may want to drive too if it's too far, or take the public transport. Point is, you'll be moving around. Me and my friend tried it yesterday afternoon, and it took us from Tugu Pahlawan, the temple at the end of Carpenter Street and around Waterfront area. I have to admit at that time I was a little lost because I couldn't make sense of anything in the game, but now that I've read a little about it, I think I'm good to go.

The game itself is still in beta version, downloadable from Google Play for free. However, you have to request an invite and get the activation code to play. It's still free, but I got mine about two weeks after requesting for an invite to play. Let not that put you off from trying it though, because I tell you it is very addictive - more than Candy Crush Saga or Subway Surfers and the likes. 

PS : Future posts will include details about the game and some of its mechanics, guides, media and in-game items, hints and tips.