Japanese supermarket chain AEON has adopted an artificial intelligence (AI) system to assess and standardise its employees’ smiles, renewing the debate about workplace harassment.On July 1, the national brand announced it had become the world’s first company to promote a smile-gauging AI system, which it is using across its 240 shops around the country.Called “Mr Smile”, it was developed by...

The Owlet One e-scootbike thing sports a 3,000-watt peak hub motor for 180 Nm of torque plus a 60-mile removable battery.Finding that many ebike riders prefer to throttle through commutes and urban adventures, LA-based startup Owlet opted to ditch the pedals altogether for its upcoming One model – a high-torque angular beast with attitude."It's a new class of urban transportation," explained t...

In 2024, nine of the world’s 10 busiest ports are located in Asia, underscoring the eastward shift in global trade flows.Due to supply chain shifts and deeper integration, intraregional trade within Asia has grown significantly. In the 1990s, over 70% of Asian exports by value went beyond the region, with containers being shipped back mostly empty. By comparison, roughly 60% of exports in Asia...

Plenty of new automotive technologies and concepts are naturally being made for the benefit of drivers and passengers, but they are supposed to also indirectly help pedestrians as well, at least in theory. With AI at the driver’s wheel, the promise of safer roads is being made, though we seem to still be far from achieving that ideal future. In the meantime, pedestrians crossing urban roads an...

MONTHLY TREND REPORT - August. 2024 Edition Released !TRENDBIRD (What's the Next Big Thing ?) is a Global Market Sensing & Trend Research Service that Instantly Delivers Industry Expert Information on Emerging Trends & Future Business Opportunities from Around the World, Always Ahead of The Curve."

In the unrecorded race for perfecting the foldable smartphones, and even tablets – in some distinct parts of the world, – Samsung is taking a leap of faith. The South Korean tech company, if the leaked patent filing is to be believed, is planning a flexible display tablet, which would be capable of expanding in either direction, on the same plane, giving the user the freedom to control the si...

E-commerce is “maturing” and returning to “pre-pandemic normalcy” as it continues to capture market share, according to FTI Consulting. A customer using a smartphone to shop. U.S. online retail sales are forecast to rise nearly 10% in 2024, per a new report. Indicating the continued growth in e-commerce, U.S. online retail sales are forecast to rise 9.8% to $1.2 trillion this year, accordin...

OpenAI is announcing its much-anticipated entry into the search market, SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine with real-time access to information across the internet.The search engine starts with a large textbox that asks the user “What are you looking for?” But rather than returning a plain list of links, SearchGPT tries to organize and make sense of them. In one example from OpenAI, the s...

This year is shaping up to be a watershed moment in the global migration of wealth. As the world grapples with a perfect storm of geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainty, and social upheaval, millionaires are voting with their feet in record numbers, seeking greener pastures and safer harbors for their assets and family interests. The conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, far from being isolated a...