London’s office real estate sector has received a reprieve from months of collapsing demand, with the third quarter showing the strongest leasing volumes of 2023.

Office real estate demand in London surges in Q3

The original tenant in the space was Dropbox Inc., said Jones Lang LaSalle's Brent Powdrill, a broker attached to the property. Dropbox, a file hosting service, leased the top three floors at 501 Congress but has shifted to a permanent work-from-home model.

Palo Alto-based Navan subleases top floors at 501 Congress as it doubles down on Austin

There are hundreds of "zombie" office buildings, with 50% or less occupancy, and investors are perplexed as to how to take advantage.

Zombie office buildings stagger through American cities

KKR & Co is raising a second Asia real estate fund, targeting US$2 billion to US$2.5 billion to spend across the region, according to sources familiar with the matter. Read more at The Business Times.

KKR is targeting US$2.5 billion for second Asia real estate fund

JLL announced today it is working with Lumen Technologies and Schneider Electric to deliver ready-to-use modular data center solutions across the U.S. that prioritizes quick deployment, adaptability a

Modular data centers provide answer to current customer supply challenges

Real Estate Investment Market to Reach $30,575.5 billion by 2031 Growth Drivers And Future Scenarios

Real Estate Investment Market To Reach $30,575.5 Billion By 2031 Growth Drivers And Future Scenarios

Developer Hillwood, the Ross Perot Jr.-led company building the 27,000-acre AllianceTexas project in North Fort Worth, is headed to downtown Cowtown for its next venture. The real estate firm has purchased a downtown Fort Worth block for future development. It’s the company’s first property play in downtown.

Developer Hillwood makes first property play in downtown Fort Worth

An Illinois investor has taken a new logistics building in DeSoto. The Southfield Park 35-5 building is a 489,310-square-foot industrial property on Jo Drive near Danieldale Road. The warehouse was developed last year by Atlanta-based Seefried Industrial Properties and investor Affinius Capital – formerly USAA Real Estate.

DeSoto logistics building sells to Illinois investor

Get the most recent info and news about Jones Lang LaSalle on HackerNoon, where 10k+ technologists publish stories for 4M+ monthly readers.

Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated, a professional services company, provides commercial real estate and investment management services worldwide. The company offers a range of real estate services, including agency leasing and tenant representation services; and capital market services, such as debt placement, loan sales, equity placement, loan servicing, funds advisory, merger and acquisition, corporate advisory, and investment sales and acquisitions services. It also provides on-site management services; integrated facilities management services; designing, building, management, and consulting services to tenants of leased space, owners in self-occupied buildings, and owners of real estate investments; and advisory, consulting, and valuation services. In addition, the company provides investment management services to institutional and retail investors, including high-net-worth individuals. It offers its services to real estate owners, occupiers, investors, and developers for various property types, including cultural, educational, government, healthcare, laboratory, hotel, hospitality, and sports facilities; industrial and warehouse, office, and residential properties; retail and shopping malls; critical environment, data, transportation, and sort and fulfillment centers; infrastructure projects; and military housings. The company was formerly known as LaSalle Partners Incorporated and changed its name to Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated in March 1999. Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Jones Lang LaSalle

IoT and smart buildings are all about data, but how is all this data used and what kind of data can you get? In this article, we share some examples of what kind of IoT data you can get in smart buildings and how it’s commonly used. Optimizing spaces with utilization data . Companies are always looking to create the best possible working spaces for their employees and to do that, they need to know how their spaces work. In addition, the question of space optimization and rental costs is always on every facility manager’s mind: In the 2017 , Jones Lang LaSalle reported that most corporate real estate executives estimate that 20% of available space is wasted, and this number can be even higher! Getting utilization data is highly important for modern facility management Occupancy Planning Annual Report with utilization data helps you reorganize your spaces by giving you insights on how to maximize your space usage, improve sustainability and reduce your company’s infrastructure costs. Optimizing your space usage With utilization data, can be determined based on facts, and thus action towards improving any under-used spaces can be taken. IoT data in smart buildings can show the popularity of different spaces in various ways: how many persons use the space on average per day, what are the peak hours or days, and so on. the popularity of different spaces With space utilization data, users can see free and occupied desks, meeting rooms, and other areas. This saves time and enables activity-based working in the office. The next step would be to find out if maybe the spaces are uninviting, have some necessary function missing or if there’s another reason people don’t want to use them. Having utilization data is also very interesting when moving into a new space. The data can be used to , how it flows, and what are the least used areas. This enables quick changes to be made so you can max out your space usage, further reducing your costs related to your real estate. test the new space on how it works Real-time usage & occupancy analytics Having real-time usage data from the building allows a way to of the building. This is done by monitoring the HVAC system and the electricity usage in the building. improve the environmental footprint When a room is not being used, there is no need to have the air conditioning keeping that room to a nice and chilly temperature. This energy can be saved or used to boost the air conditioning in other rooms, where it is actually needed. has a great use case in . Determining the most popular rooms with their peak hours and days enables, for example, automated heating and air conditioning optimization. This reduces the energy needed in the building. Real-time usage data facility management IoT utilization data can also help you prepare for unusual times: , companies with access to space utilization data have not just been able to set occupancy limitations to their spaces, but they also have been able to monitor this to ensure the safety of their employees. During COVID-19 Smart cleaning The same idea applies to When using occupancy information, there is a clear way to keep the most used spaces clean. Shifting from a schedule-based cleaning to a more need-based cleaning saves time and money and helps to ensure a higher standard of hygiene. smart cleaning. As with the utilization data, the real-time usage and occupancy data of a space can be used for . The occupancy data is very useful in spaces with a raised need for hygiene, such as in restrooms or hospitals. The time between in which the rooms have been used is very handy in helping to keep the building hygienic COVID-19 protocol enforcement Fill rate data and monitoring of the paper, towel, and soap dispensers, as well as trash bins, is most commonly used in smart cleaning solutions. With fill rate monitoring, the cleaning staff needs to do fewer unnecessary checks, saving time and steps while the users can always rely on having a well-stocked dispenser in their facilities. Monitoring the fill rates Here are some findings from textile service company Lindström on their : Flowability washroom solution Environmental data With IoT devices, you can from your smart building. Getting environmental data on your spaces helps you make sure your spaces offer healthy and safe conditions for the users, enables them to find areas best suited for them, and helps facility managers to keep track of heating and air conditioning needs. get a variety of environmental data Environmental data in buildings can be air quality, temperature, air pressure, or illuminance for example. Indoor tracking Using IoT devices data in smart buildings can also enable indoor tracking. In this context, indoor tracking can be either the or the . When considering the use case in location tracking for employees, it should always be a voluntary sharing tool. location of the workforce location of certain equipment Indoor tracking enables finding colleagues, allowing for better communication with them and cooperating better with team members and coworkers. It is especially neat when you need to find someone outside of your regular team, as you may not know where they usually sit. When using location tracking, the users can see , and maybe find some company to grab lunch with. who is around at the office for different tasks Location tracking in smart buildings is usually done with keycards, tags, or Bluetooth-enabled trackers people always carry with them. The data is then displayed on a digital twin of the office. As mentioned earlier, in addition to finding people, indoor tracking can be used with certain equipment. It might be that some of this and therefore needs to be tracked within the building, or that you want to monitor your inventory levels with the solution. Using indoor tracking for equipment can also help you understand equipment usage better and reduce the risk of loss and theft. equipment is critical to find Conclusion IoT data has a multitude of use cases in smart buildings. Whether you want to optimize your space usage or track critical equipment, . IoT data makes all this possible Read more about IoT devices and what they are capable of from our IoT devices guide.

IoT in Smart Buildings – A Behind-The-Scenes Picture on Data Utilization

The Top 30 Salesforce Consulting Companies

Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can hardly be called emerging in 2019. For the last decade, domains of all sorts have been leveraging them, and speaks to the fact. Today, ML and AI create value for organizations across Consumer Services, Automotive, Agriculture, Retail, Healthcare, and other major industries. the visualization by McKinsey Global Institute As businesses realize these technologies are a boon, the demand for machine learning consulting companies is skyrocketing, which predictably influences the supply. In such a way, today’s IT market is literally larded with ML vendors tackling projects of any scope and budget. To help you make your way through this enormous and diverse offering, we assembled a list of today’s most trustworthy vendors of machine learning consulting and development services. Our IT market analysts assessed an extensive range of companies according to the following objective criteria: Proven machine learning expertise Prior projects: size and complexity Diversity of business domains served Client references Speed and quality of customer service As a result, we got a list of 30 companies worthy of attention. For readers’ convenience, we present the vendors in descending order. 1. Itransition A recognized custom software development company, Itransition has delivered 1,500 projects over the span of its 20-year market presence. With more than 2,000 IT experts on board, the company has served 810 clients from 30 countries. Among the ML services the company provides there are data mining, natural language processing, computer vision, robotic process automation, and machine learning consulting. To deliver its ML solutions, Itransition uses such technologies as Python, R, Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS. Location: Denver, CO Established: 1998 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Expedia, Xerox, Toyota, eBay, PayPal, Shell, adidas Other, non-ML services: custom software development, CRM consulting, ecommerce development Website: https://www.itransition.com/ 2. Tooploox EU-based Tooploox has around 100 skilled experts on board. For seven years of the company’s operation, they delivered 150+ successful projects. Tooploox is a machine learning consulting company using this technology to deliver computer and 3D vision, sensor fusion, deep learning, natural language processing, reinforcement learning, and other ML-related services. The company has expertise with other emerging technologies, such as blockchain. Location: Wrocław, Poland Established: 2012 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: CoinDesk, DTS, ING, Spire Health, Group Nine Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, product design Website: https://www.tooploox.com/ 3. Skim Technologies London-based Skim Technologies is an internationally recognized machine learning consulting company delivering a wide range of related services. The company’s data scientists offer chatbot development, custom ML model creation, and NLP engineering. Skim Technologies also delivers AI workshops as well as ML and AI consulting services. Location: London, United Kingdom Established: 2014 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Jones Lang-Lasalle, Breast Cancer Care, Quant Insight Other, non-ML services: business intelligence consulting, custom software development Website: https://www.skimtechnologies.com/ 4. ThirdEye Data US-based ThirdEye Data has been delivering its ML development services for nine years. The company specializes in chatbot development, custom ML algorithms, and machine learning consulting. Among the data science technologies the company works with, there are Spark, TensorFlow, Caffe, and others. Location: Santa Clara, CA Established: 2010 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Microsoft, Amazon, Nokia, Ford Direct, Getty Images, Amgen Other, non-ML services: business intelligence consulting, cloud consulting Website: https://thirdeyedata.io/ 5. Chatbots.Studio As its name implies, Chatbots.Studio is a company focusing on AI-powered chatbot development. It builds multichannel conversational platforms, automates business processes, and designs conversations. The company’s technology stack includes React, Redux, Angular 6, Node.js, Express.js, Botkit, and others. Location: Lviv, Ukraine Established: 2016 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Visa, Unibot, Aldi, Digital Flex Other, non-ML services: custom software development Website: https://chatbots.studio/ 6. Azati Software Since 2001, Azati's experts have cooperated with 330 clients globally. Among the ML competencies of the company there are supervised and unsupervised learning, distributed computing, natural language processing, digital signal processing, and machine learning consulting. Azati’s tech toolkit includes CuDNN, Scikit Learn for Python, and Tensor Flow. The company mainly targets clients in the Insurance domain. Location: Livingston, NJ Established: 2001 Project budgets start at: $1,000 Key clients: MedPro Group, SequenceBase, Casio, Thomson Reuters Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, web development Website: https://azati.ai/ 7. Hidden Brains Since its foundation in 2003, Hidden Brains has cooperated with clients from 107 countries. The company delivers AI, ML, deep learning, and data science services. It also specializes in developing natural language processing software. Hidden Brains also delivers chatbots, including those for Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Slack. Location: Ahmedabad, India Established: 2003 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: McAfee, Raymond, Maxtor, SanDisk Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, web development Website: https://www.hiddenbrains.com/ 8. InData Labs Established in 2014, InData Labs houses 50+ data scientists, engineers, and analysts. The company develops ML algorithms and natural language processing solutions. Besides, InData Labs specializes in computer vision and predictive modeling. The company's stack includes Python, SpaCy, TensorFlow, Keras, and more proven languages and frameworks. Location: Minsk, Belarus Established: 2014 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Captiv8, Flo Health, Wargaming Other, non-ML services: business intelligence consulting Website: https://indatalabs.com/ 9. Arcanys Since 2010, Philippines-based Arcanys has been delivering its ML and AI services to clients from all over the world. The company specializes in sentiment analysis, recommender systems, and image recognition. As one of its cooperation models, the company provides dedicated teams of highly experienced data scientists and developers. Location: Cebu City, Philippines Established: 2010 Project budgets start at: $100,000 Key clients: General Electric Korea, Enfo, Payment Logic, L’Oreal, Spinetix Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development Website: https://www.arcanys.com/ 10. MobiDev Since 2009, MobiDev’s IT experts have delivered 350+ software solutions. While headquartered in the US, the company provides its services globally. MobiDev uses the following machine learning technologies: Python, R, C++, Go, TensorFlow, ONNX, and Keras. MobiDev’s mobile ML toolkit includes Core ML, TensorFlow Lite, and Cafe2Go. On top of that, the company provides machine learning consulting. Location: Atlanta, GA Established: 2009 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Verizon Media, Comcash, Quality Bridge, SmartTab, SMS Group Other, non-ML services: IoT development, web development Website: https://mobidev.biz 11. Spire Digital For over 20 years that Spire Digital has been providing IT services, it has cooperated with 600+ global customers. Among the ML and AI development services the company offers, there are natural language processing, supervised and unsupervised learning, and sentiment analysis. Also, Spire Digital creates chatbots for Facebook Messenger, Slack, Skype, and Cisco WebEx. Location: Denver, CO Established: 1998 Project budgets start at: Undisclosed Key clients: TomTom, Lockheed Martin, US Navy, USDA, Western Union Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development Website: https://www.spiredigital.com/ 12. Icreon New York-based Icreon is a digital innovation agency mostly targeting medium-sized businesses. The company uses AI and ML technologies to create innovative applications, platforms, and ecosystems. The company’s technological expertise in ML includes Amazon Web Services, Azure, Caffe2, Google Cloud, Keras, and more. Location: New York, NY Established: 2000 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: National Geographic Channel, FOX Movies, Harry Winston, Nokia Other, non-ML services: custom software development Website: https://www.icreon.us/ 13. Miquido For eight years, Miquido's team has successfully completed more than 100 projects, including in machine learning. The company offers solutions for AI-based personalization, predictive and behavioral analytics, and churn prediction. Miquido also develops chatbots. Recognized by Deloitte as one the fastest growing companies in Europe, Miquido also offers UI/UX design creation and mobile apps development. Location: Kraków, Poland Established: 2011 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Skyscanner, Abbey Road Studios, HelloFresh Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, web development Website: https://www.miquido.com/ 14. Neoteriс Founded in 2005, Europe-based Neoteric offers a wide range of ML solutions, including predictive analytics, recommendation engines, NLP, robotic process automation, and machine learning consulting. The company also specializes in such AI platforms as SaaS Manager, SoapBox, AppOrchid, and RapidSOS. Location: Gdańsk, Poland Established: 2005 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: LunchBadger, Arvata, IT Trans Other, non-ML services: custom software development, web development Website: https://neoteric.eu/ 15. Unicsoft Established in 2005, Unicsoft employs more than 100 specialists in emerging technologies and software development. Within its ML tech stack, the company offers development of predictive and behavioral analytics solutions, neural networks, and recommendation engines, among other ML applications. The company also delivers consulting services, and maintenance of existing ML platforms. Location: Kiev, Ukraine Established: 2005 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key Clients: Hoodifood, Executive Eye, GOFORIT, Intellica Group Other, non-ML services: blockchain Website: https://unicsoft.com/ 16. Abto Software With 12 years of its market presence, Abto Software’s has worked with 200+ global customers. Specializing in AI and ML, the company offers custom enterprise solutions for advanced and predictive analytics, virtual assistants, recommendation systems, and intelligent business process automation. Abto Software works with the following tools and frameworks, among others: TensorFlow, Keras, Caffe, OpenCV, and AWS. Location: New York, NY Established: 2007 Project budgets start at: Undisclosed Key clients: Just Answer, Skybow, Medikit, Up Great Other, non-ML services: web development, enterprise app modernization Website: https://www.abtosoftware.com/ 17. Accubits Technologies, Inc. US-located Accubits started in 2012 and has already cooperated with 140+ clients. The company’s ML capabilities include development of conversational and classification tools, video, image and text analytics solutions, as well as predictive analytics software. Besides, Accubits offers machine learning consulting. The company’s experts work with NumPy, PHP, Python, SpaCy, Spark, and several other platforms. Location: Vienna, VA Established: 2012 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key сlients: Dubai Land Department, Smart Dubai, Eduvalue, Landmark Other, non-ML services: blockchain, custom software development Website: https://accubits.com/ 18. BotsCrew Established in 2016, BotsCrew is a global leader in chatbot development, delivering to mid-sized companies and startups. BotsCrew has its own enterprise chatbot platform that is ready to be customized and optimized according to customers' needs. Besides the proprietary platform, the company offers development of voice assistants and IoT bots. Location: London, United Kingdom Established: 2016 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Ailira, IVA, ReVA, Dr. Dean Other, non-ML services: None Website: https://botscrew.com/ 19. STX Next Founded in 2005, STX Next is a custom software development company that specializes in streamlining IT solutions with AI and ML technologies. The company’s main technological advantage is in its exceptionally skilled Python developers. For 14 years on the market, STX Next has delivered over 250 successful projects. Location: Poznań, Poland Established: 2005 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Seerene, Verve, Hogarth WW, Pixomondo, Unity Technologies Other, non-ML services: web development, custom software development Website: https://stxnext.com/ 20. Dogtown Media California-based Dogtown Media specializes in delivering mobile applications, enhanced with ML and AI technologies. Besides ML-powered mobile apps, the company provides machine learning consulting. For the last eight years, Dogtown Media has brought to life at least 200 applications. Location: Venice Beach, CA Established: 2011 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Google, Lexus, United Nations, Citibank, Red Bull, YouTube Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, IoT development Website: https://www.dogtownmedia.com/ 21. Sigmoidal Sigmoidal is a New-York-based consultancy specializing in machine learning and data science, mostly for companies in Finance, Trading, and Pharma. The company integrates these technologies into web and mobile applications and APIs. It also offers solutions for NLP, computer vision, and predictive analytics. Location: New York, NY Established: 2016 Project budgets start at: $1,000 Key clients: Undisclosed Other, non-ML services: business intelligence consulting Website: https://sigmoidal.io/ 22. Cyber Infrastructure Established in 2003, Cyber Infrastructure is a custom software development company with 100+ clients worldwide. Its ML expertise includes development of virtual assistants and chatbots for a variety of domains. Cyber Infrastructure also provides machine learning consulting and employs Python, Java, C++, Lisp, and R as its primary ML and AI stack. Location: San Francisco, CA Established: 2003 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Mannatech, Bell Other, non-ML services: custom software development, web development Website: https://www.cisin.com/ 23. Azilen Technologies US-headquartered Azilen Technologies has 250+ IT experts on board distributed across four offices worldwide. They employ ML technologies to deliver customer service, survey, and informational bots. On top of that, the company delivers facial recognition and predictive analytics solutions. Location: West Bloomfield, MI Established: 2009 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Samsung, Pizza Hut, Sodexo, ICICI Bank Other, non-ML services: custom software development Website: https://www.azilen.com/ 24. Stermedia Stermedia has been delivering its ML and data science services since 2007. The company’s dedicated teams of data scientists and software architects design ML algorithms and models for extracting knowledge from big data sets. The company also provides NLP solutions and uses such technologies as TensorFlow and Keras, to name just a few. Location: Wroclaw, Poland Established: 2007 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key Clients: Family Fabric, WorkService, ISOK Other, non-ML services: custom software development, web development Website: https://stermedia.ai/ 25. Belatrix Having five offices with 600+ professionals all around the world, Belatrix is one of the most fast-evolving machine learning consulting companies on the market today. Its machine learning experts have a proven track record of building various solutions, from predictive modeling to communication automation. Location: Mendoza, Argentina Established: 2003 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Disney, Adobe, AOL, FIS, Chatman Financial Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development Website: https://www.belatrixsf.com/ 26. DataRoot Labs DataRoot Labs is an agency focusing on ML and AI development. It delivers full-cycle ML software development, including project evaluation, machine learning consulting, strategy development, architecture, integration, and support. Besides, DataRoot Labs helps enterprises with digital transformation with AI at the core. Location: Kiev, Ukraine Established: 2016 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Servers.com, Everad, ABM Cloud, Cargofy Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development Website: https://datarootlabs.com/ 27. Softengi Since 1995, Softengi has completed 900+ projects for clients across six continents. The company’s ML services include chatbot engineering and NLP algorithms. For these purposes, Softengi uses R, Hadoop, and Python, among other tools. Location: Kiev, Ukraine Established: 1995 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Boeing, Zeppelin, Enviance, OneRoof Energy Other, non-ML services: custom software development, AR/VR development, IoT development Website: http://softengi.com/ 28. Waverley With 27 years of software development experience, Waverley is a company housing 370K talented engineers. Among other services, they offer ML-centric solutions such as data clustering and unsupervised algorithms. On top of that, the company offers NLP and computer vision solutions and chatbots. To deliver ML products, Waverley’s engineers use Java, Python, Scala, and R. Location: Palo Alto, CA Established: 1992 Project budgets start at: $50,000 Key clients: Mozilla, Qualcomm, Swisscom, American Express Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development, IoT development Website: https://waverleysoftware.com/ 29. Imaginovation Founded in 2011, Imaginovation is a software development agency that has successfully completed 300+ IT projects of various complexity. As for ML and AI, the company develops recommendation and effectiveness assessment engines as well as solutions for speech and text processing automation. Location: Cary, NC Established: 2011 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: MetLife, Nestle, UNC Pembroke, Contractor Score Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development, web development Website: https://www.imaginovation.net/ 30. E2logy Established in 2005, E2logy has delivered 300+ projects to businesses of various sizes. Being a leading Amazon Web Services and Azure AI vendor, the company develops ML algorithms and chatbots. They also offer machine learning consulting. In addition to their ML services, E2Logy brings custom IoT solutions to its global customers. Location: Ahmedabad, India Established: 2005 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: McMillan Publishers, Polaris Industries, Vodafone Other, non-ML services: custom software development, web development Website: https://e2logy.com/ This was a full list of the top 30 machine learning consulting companies in 2019. If you cooperated with any of the presented vendors, please do get in touch and share your story.

Top 30 Machine Learning Consulting Companies

Do you remember ? If you grew up in the eighties and spent any time around arcade games, there’s a good chance you will. Its most recent high profile name-check was in Stranger Things: a nod to its enduring pop-culture legacy. And there’s talk of a film in the works. Dragon’s Lair I remember it particularly well. Near my home on the outskirts of Manchester, England, one of our local stores had a handful of arcade games you could play and Dragon’s Lair just stood out. It was so unique. I would’ve never dreamed it at the time but over three decades later, I can draw a line from those childhood days, through experiences with the United Nations, international humanitarian response and film and television – to what we do at Near-Life™ today. Check out our Dragon’s Lair interactive scenario created using Near-Life™ CREATOR. Interactive video and games Back in the 80s Dragon’s Lair was credited with re-invigorating an ailing arcade industry: on the backfoot since the rise of consoles. Its innovation was to combine the animated storytelling of Don Bluth with interactive gameplay. It worked through the – if you made your move at the right time, you would skip to the correct outcome. The game was one of the earliest – and most famous – examples of a genre that is now known as Full Motion Video or FMV. use of laserdisc technology FMV games combine the art of film with the interactivity of games. In their most common form, they tend to link video sequences using a ‘choose your own adventure’ style approach to decision making. The choices you make affect how the story unfolds, as with the books of the same name. However, it wasn’t just high-profile, blockbuster games and consoles that defined the nascent 80s tech scene – there was also the parallel DIY aesthetic of home computing and the world of bedroom-coding upstarts. PC mags were filled with code to build your own games and people like Matthew Smith and Tim and Chris Stamper, in the UK at least, became punk-programming icons. The spirit of the possible Indeed, in the you-can-do-it-too spirit, many early ‘home computer’ games for the likes of the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 often had some fairly rudimentary authoring feature that allowed you to create your own games – no BASIC required! That democratic spirit always resonated with me – technology empowering us to unlock our own creativity. Many of us enjoy consuming culture, while also being inspired to roll our sleeves up and have a go – as the exponential rise of YouTube and now TikTok has proved beyond any doubt. Interactive video and humanitarian response Fast forward twenty years and I had just returned from working with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. My role had been part of the international effort to support economic redevelopment following the war there. Back in the UK, thanks to my experience, I was invited to become part of the Government’s ‘Stabilisation Unit’. They put together a list of ‘experts’ (a description that was tenuous at best in my case) who could be deployed at short notice to support the UK’s international aid efforts. In order to be sent ‘on mission’, you had to first complete a very comprehensive form of security training, commonly known as ‘Hostile Environment Awareness Training’ or HEAT: originally designed for journalists going out to war zones. The course I was part of was a week-long exercise that involved highly immersive simulations: featuring everything from landmine explosions to hostage and kidnapping situations. It all took place at an army base and was very, very thorough. However, what struck me about the whole process was just how expensive it must be – and how difficult it would be to give large numbers of people access to the same experience. One of the common challenges in the development sector as a whole is that so-called ‘international’ staff often get access to much better and more complete training than those employed in-country. It was this that got me thinking. The inception of Near-Life™: the interactive video authoring tool for everyone Since my return to the UK, despite retaining a connection with the international development world, my main focus had been media production, specifically, documentaries: an art form that was undergoing its own democratisation of creativity. Video content, thanks to the rise of digital and the likes of Final Cut Pro, had become much easier to produce. In documentaries, at least the projects we focussed on, the emphasis is very much on realism and telling authentic stories. I wondered: could you combine something authentic and realistic with a game-like (FMV) simulation to provide learners with the type of experience I’d had on my HEAT Course? That, in essence, was the inception of Near-Life™. A small group of us, who still work together today, set to work to prove it was possible. You could hardly call it an overnight success. Getting mission ready It took us around five years of pitching the idea to various agencies and funders until we finally secured the support of the UK’s Department for International Development and the United States Aid Department. We received investment to produce a project on ‘Field Security Management’ with UK-based Humanitarian NGO RedR. Filmed entirely in Kenya, the project, called ‘ ’, was launched in 2015 – and we received resoundingly positive feedback from learners. We were even invited to present Mission Ready at the UN World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul to showcase the innovation. Mission Ready A worldwide success Not only did learners prefer the approach, it also improved outcomes. This is something that all the research shows – interactions and game-like experiences enhance knowledge retention. And, importantly for us, the course, translated to French, Spanish and Arabic, was picked up around the world – making this type of immersive learning accessible to a much wider range of people than would otherwise have been possible. Even now, some five years later, Mission Ready has hundreds of users in over 30+ countries. We pushed on from Mission Ready by teaming up with the Norwegian Refugee Council to produce an award-winning project called ‘Frontline Humanitarian Toolbox’. Filmed in Jordan, with an Arabic-speaking cast and based on real-life experiences, the interactive video course was designed to give locally employed colleagues in Syria access to high-quality experiential training that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible. We’re very proud of this work in the international humanitarian space – and it’s an area we continue to be involved with, most recently collaborating with the World Health Organisation on a project for Emergency Medical Teams. Gamification in learning has many use cases However, we always knew the approach was applicable in multiple areas. We spread our wings to produce further pilots, partnering on learning design and content, with the likes of UK retailer ASDA and the National Health Service, as well as First Aid charity St John Ambulance and international property company Jones Lang Lasalle. It was these very disparate use cases – and the positive reaction they had – that inspired us to take the step we’d always wanted. We raised investment to develop an authoring tool that would empower others, in the true DIY spirit, to design and publish their own immersive projects. We launched in Spring 2020 and have since onboarded users from across the world. Thanks to investment from Innovate UK we were also able to add VR authoring at the beginning of 2021 – giving even greater flexibility to content creators. And its use of Web VR technology means the typical barriers to scaling VR projects simply aren’t there. Near-Life™ CREATOR Interest in interactive video continued to grow Since we started on this journey some ten-plus years ago, we’ve seen interest continue to grow in the interactive and immersive learning space. The term ‘branching scenarios’ is now common parlance in learning. More and more people are aware of the value this approach can bring. And the likes of Netflix’s Bandersnatch and Bear Gryll’s ‘You vs Wild’ have been more recent landmarks in the FVM crossover world. Bringing interactivity to a previously linear space. The creative possibilities really are huge. That’s where we come in. We want to unlock those possibilities for a new generation of content creation. The focus for us has always been around empowerment: from empowering learners with more immersive experiences, through to empowering creators to take their own projects to the next level. Edtech at the core Certainly interest in remote learning – and all things remote – has accelerated through the pandemic. And we continue to see learning as a core part of what we do. But we have also seen, thanks to the likes of Netflix, Steam and others, an increased interest in interactive and immersive storytelling more broadly. We now have users creating everything from public information campaigns through to interactive children’s theatre. Democratising interactive video and content creation Our goal is simple: to make interactive content creation accessible. We’re proud of developing the first interactive Video and VR authoring tool designed for everyone. And we continue to work on enhancing the game design capabilities that are at the core of what we do. We want interactive content to be easy, removing the technical barriers that may previously have held people back. The future looks bright for this immersive, creative world. And as more people choose their own adventure, I’m convinced the best is yet to come. If you want to learn more about creating your own interactive video, VR and gamified content, of our authoring tool. click here to request a demo Also published on: https://near-life.tech/interactive-video-a-near-life-story/ This article is part of The hosted by HackerNoon in partnership with Gaming Metaverse Writing Contest The Sandbox . Submit your today for your chance to win up to $2000. #gaming-metaverse story

Interactive Video: Past, Present, and Future

Markus Lanieux Fled a Traffic Stop - He's Now Doing Life in Prison

Markus Lanieux একটি ট্রাফিক স্টপ পালিয়ে গেছে - তিনি এখন কারাগারে জীবন করছেন

Markus Lanieux floh vor einer Verkehrskontrolle – jetzt sitzt er im Gefängnis

Markus Lanieux escapó de una parada de tráfico y ahora cumple cadena perpetua

Markus Lanieux a fui un contrôle routier – il purge désormais une peine de prison à vie

मार्कस लैनियक्स ट्रैफिक स्टॉप से भाग गया - वह अब जेल में जीवन बिता रहा है

マルクス・ラニュー、交通停止から逃走 - 現在は刑務所で暮らしている

Markus Lanieux는 교통 정체를 피해 도망쳤으며 현재 감옥에서 생활하고 있습니다.

Markus Lanieux fugiu de uma parada de trânsito - agora ele está cumprindo prisão perpétua

Маркус Ланье сбежал с остановки и теперь ведет жизнь в тюрьме

Markus Lanieux Trafik Durdurmasından Kaçtı - Şimdi Müebbet Hapis Cezasında

Markus Lanieux Chạy trốn khỏi điểm dừng giao thông - Anh ta hiện đang sống trong tù

马库斯·拉尼厄克斯 (Markus Lanieux) 逃离了交通堵塞 - 他现在在监狱里过着生活

On the 15th May Cavalier set out from Tarnac

The Life and Love of the Insect by Jean-Henri Fabre, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . A DUNG-BEETLE OF THE PAMPAS CHAPTER VIII. A DUNG-BEETLE OF THE PAMPAS To travel over the world, by land and sea, from pole to pole; to cross-question life, under every clime, in the infinite variety of its manifestations: that surely would be glorious luck for him that has eyes to see with; and it formed the radiant dream of my young years, at the time when Robinson Crusoe was my delight. These rosy illusions, rich in voyages, were soon succeeded by dull, stay-at-home reality. The jungles of India, the virgin forests of Brazil, the towering crests of the Andes, beloved by the condor, were reduced, as a field for exploration, to a patch of pebble-stones enclosed within four walls. Heaven forfend that I should complain! The gathering of ideas does not necessarily imply distant expeditions. Jean-Jacques Rousseau herborized with the bunch of chickweed whereon he fed his canary; Bernardin de Saint-Pierre discovered a world on a strawberry-plant that grew by accident in a corner of his window; Xavier de Maistre, using an arm-chair by way of post-chaise, made one of the most famous of journeys around his room. This manner of seeing country is within my means, always excepting the post-chaise, which is too difficult to drive through the brambles. I go the circuit of my [ ]enclosure over and over again, a hundred times, by short stages; I stop here and I stop there; patiently, I put questions; and, at long intervals, I receive some scrap of a reply. 100 The smallest insect village has become familiar to me: I know each fruit-branch where the Praying Mantis perches; each bush where the pale Italian Cricket strums amid the calmness of the summer nights; each wad-clad blade of grass scraped by the Anthidium, that maker of cotton bags; each cluster of lilac worked by the Megachile, the leaf-cutter. If cruising among the nooks and corners of the garden do not suffice, a longer voyage shows ample profit. I double the cape of the neighbouring hedges and, at a few hundred yards, enter into relations with the Sacred Beetle, the Capricorn, the Geotrupe, the Copris, the Dectus, the Cricket, the Green Grasshopper, in short, with a host of tribes the unfolding of whose story would exhaust a human life. Certainly, I have plenty, I have too much to do with my near neighbours, without going and wandering in distant regions. And then, besides, roaming the world, scattering one’s attention over a host of subjects, is not observing. The travelling entomologist can stick numerous species, the joy of the collector and the nomenclator, into his boxes; but to gather circumstantial documents is a very different matter. A Wandering Jew of science, he has no time to stop. Where a prolonged stay would be necessary to study this or that fact, he is hurried by the next stage. We must not expect the impossible of him in these conditions. Let him pin his specimens to cork tablets, let him steep them in tafia jars and leave to the sedentary the patient observations that require time.[ ] 101 This explains the extreme penury of history outside the dry descriptions of the nomenclator. Overwhelming us with its numbers, the exotic insect nearly always preserves the secret of its manners. Nevertheless, it were well to compare what happens under our eyes with that which happens elsewhere; it were excellent to see how, in the same corporation of workers, the fundamental instinct varies with climatic conditions. Then my travelling regrets return, vainer to-day than ever, unless one could find a seat on the carpet of which we read in the Arabian Nights, the famous carpet whereon one had but to sit to be carried whithersoever he pleased. O marvellous conveyance, far preferable to Xavier de Maistre’s post-chaise! If only I could find a little corner on it, with a return-ticket! I do find it. I owe this unexpected good fortune to a Christian Brother, to Brother Judulian, of the Lasalle College at Buenos Ayres. His modesty would be offended by the praises which his debtor owes him. Let us simply say that, acting on my instructions, his eyes take the place of mine. He seeks, finds, observes, sends me his notes and his discoveries. I observe, seek and find with him, by correspondence. It is done: thanks to this first-rate collaborator, I have my seat on the magic carpet. Behold me in the pampas of the Argentine Republic, eager to draw a parallel between the industry of the Dung-beetles of Sérignan and that of their rivals in the western hemisphere. 2 A glorious beginning! An accidental find procures me, to start with, Phanæus Milo, a magnificent insect, blue-black all over. The corselet of the male juts forward, over the head, in a short, broad, flattened [ ]horn, ending in a trident. The female replaces this ornament with simple folds. Both carry, in front of their shield, two spikes which form a trusty digging-implement and also a scalpel for dissecting. The insect’s squat, sturdy, four-cornered build resembles that of Onitis Olivieri, one of the rarities of the neighbourhood of Montpellier. 102 If similarity of shape implied parity of work, we ought unhesitatingly to attribute to Phanæus Milo short, thick puddings like those made by Olivier’s Onitis. Alas, structure is a bad guide where the instinct is concerned! The square-chined, short-legged Dung-worker excels in the art of manufacturing gourds. The Sacred Beetle himself supplies none that are more perfect nor, above all, more capacious. Fig. 8.—Phanæus Milo. The thick-set insect astonishes me with the elegance of its work, which is irreproachable in its geometry: the neck is less slender, but nevertheless combines grace with strength. The model seems derived from some Indian calabash, the more so as the neck opens wide and the belly is engraved with an elegant guilloche, produced by the insect’s tarsi. One seems to see a pitcher protected by a wicker-work covering. The whole is able to attain and even exceed the size of a hen’s egg. It is a very curious piece of work and of a rare perfection, especially when we consider the artist’s clumsy and massive build. Once again, the tool does not make the [ ]workman, among Dung-beetles any more than among ourselves. To guide the modeller there is something better than a set of tools: there is what I would call the bump, the genius of the animal. 103 Phanæus Milo laughs at difficulties. He does more: he laughs at our classifications. The word Dung-beetle implies a lover of dung. He sets no value on it, either for his own use or for that of his offspring. What he wants is the sanies of corpses. He is to be found under the carcasses of birds, dogs or cats, in the company of the undertakers-in-ordinary. The gourd of which I give a drawing overleaf was lying in the earth under the remains of an owl. Let him who will explain this conjunction of the appetites of the Necrophore with the talents of the Scarab. As for me, baffled by tastes which no one would suspect from the mere appearance of the insect, I give it up. I know in my neighbourhood one Dung-beetle and one alone who also works among the remains of dead bodies. This is Onthophagus Ovatus (Lin.), a constant frequenter of dead moles and rabbits. But the dwarf undertaker does not on that account scorn stercoraceous fare: he feasts upon it like the other Onthophagi. Perhaps there is a two-fold diet here: the bun for the adult; the highly-spiced, far-gone meat for the grub. Similar facts are encountered elsewhere with different tastes. The predatory Hymenopteron takes her fill of honey drawn from the nectaries of the flowers, but feeds her little ones on game. Game first, then sugar, for the same stomach. How that digestive pouch must change on the road! And yet no more than our own, which scorns in later life that which delighted it when young. Fig. 9.—Work of Phanæus Milo. A, the whole piece, actual size. B, the same opened, showing the pill of sausage-meat, the clay gourd, the chamber containing the egg the ventilating-shaft. Let us now examine the work of Phanæus Milo [ ]more thoroughly. The calabashes came into my hands in a state of complete desiccation. They are very nearly as hard as stone; their colour favours a pale chocolate. Neither inside nor out does the lens discover the small fibrous particle pointing to a residuum of grasses. The strange Dung-beetle does not, therefore, employ the bovine cakes, nor anything similar; he handles products of another class, which are pretty difficult to specify at first. 104 Held to the ear and shaken, the object sounds a little as would the shell of a dry fruit with a stone lying free inside it. Does it contain the grub, shrivelled by desiccation? Does it contain the dead insect? I thought so, [ ]but I was wrong. It contains something much better than that for our instruction. 105 I carefully rip up the gourd with the point of the knife. Under a homogeneous outer wall, the thickness of which reaches as much as two centimetres in the largest of my three specimens, is encased a spherical kernel, which fills the cavity exactly, but without sticking to the wall at any part. The trifle of free scope allowed to this kernel accounts for the rattling which I heard when shaking the piece. 3 The kernel does not differ from the wrapper in the colour and general appearance of its bulk. But let us break it and examine the shreds. I recognize tiny fragments of gold, flocks of down, threads of wool, scraps of meat, the whole drowned in an earthy paste resembling chocolate. Placed on a glowing coal, this paste, shredded under the lens and deprived of its particles of dead bodies, becomes much darker, is covered with shiny bubbles and sends forth puffs of that acrid smoke in which we easily recognize burnt animal matter. The whole mass of the kernel, therefore, is strongly impregnated with sanies. Treated in the same manner, the wrapper also turns dark, but not to the same extent; it hardly smokes; it is not covered with jet-black bubbles; lastly, it does not anywhere contain shreds of carcasses similar to those in the central nut. In both cases, the residuum of the calcination is a fine, reddish clay. This brief analysis tells us all about Phanæus Milo’s table. The fare served to the grub is a sort of vol-au-vent. The sausage-meat consists of a mince of all that the two scalpels of the shield and the toothed knives of the fore-legs have been able to cut away from the carcass: [ ]hair and down, crushed ossicles, strips of flesh and skin. Now hard as brick, the thickening of that mince was originally a jelly of fine clay soaked in the juice of corruption. Lastly, the puff-paste crust of our vol-au-vent is here represented by a covering of the same clay, less rich in extract of meat than the other. 106 The pastry-cook gives his pie an elegant shape; he decorates it with rosettes, with twists, with scrolls. Phanæus Milo is no stranger to these culinary æsthetics. He turns the crust of his vol-au-vent into a handsome gourd, ornamented with a finger-print guilloche. The outer covering, a disagreeable crust, insufficiently steeped in savoury juices, is not, we can easily guess, intended for consumption. It is possible that, somewhat later, when the stomach becomes robust and is not repelled by coarse fare, the grub scrapes a little from the wall of its pie; but, taken as a whole, until the adult insect emerges, the calabash remains intact, having acted as a safeguard of the freshness of the mince-meat at first and as a protecting box for the recluse from start to finish. Above the cold pasty, right at the base of the neck of the gourd, is contrived a round cell with a clay wall continuing the general wall. A fairly thick floor, made of the same material, separates it from the store-room. It is the hatching-chamber. Here is laid the egg, which I find in its place, but dried up; here is hatched the worm, which, to reach the nourishing ball, must previously open a trap-door through the partition separating the two storeys. The worm is born in a little box surmounting the nourishing pile, but not communicating with it. The budding grub must, therefore, at the opportune moment, itself pierce the covering of the pot of preserves. As a [ ]matter of fact, later, when the worm is on the sausage-meat, we find the floor perforated with a hole just large enough for it to pass through. 107 Wrapped all round in a thick casing of pottery, the meat keeps fresh as long as is required by the duration of the hatching-process, a detail which I have not ascertained; in its cell, which is also of clay, the egg lies safe. Capital: so far, all is well. Phanæus Milo is thoroughly acquainted with the mysteries of fortification and the danger of victuals evaporating too soon. There remain the breathing requirements of the germ. To satisfy these, the insect has been equally well-inspired. The neck of the calabash is pierced, in the direction of its axis, with a tiny channel which would admit at most the thinnest of straws. Inside, this conduit opens at the top of the dome of the hatching-chamber; outside, at the tip of the nipple, it spreads into a wide mouth-piece. This is the ventilating-shaft, protected against intruders by its extreme narrowness and by grains of dust which obstruct it a little, without stopping it up. It is simply marvellous, I said. Was I wrong? If a construction of this sort is a fortuitous result, we must admit that blind chance is gifted with extraordinary foresight. How does the awkward insect manage to carry so delicate and complex a piece of building through? Exploring the pampas as I do through the eyes of an intermediary, my only guide in this question is the structure of the work, a structure whence we can deduct the workman’s methods without going far wrong. I therefore imagine the labour to proceed like this: a small carcass is found, the oozing of which has softened the underlying loam. The insect collects more or less of this loam, [ ]according to the richness of the vein. There are no precise limits here. If the plastic material abound, the collector is lavish with it and the provision-box becomes all the more solid. Then enormous calabashes are obtained, exceeding a hen’s egg in volume and formed of an outer wall a couple of centimetres thick. But a mass of this description is beyond the strength of the modeller, is badly handled and betrays, in its outline, the clumsiness of an over-difficult task. If the material be rare, the insect confines its harvesting to what is strictly necessary; and then, freer in its movements, it obtains a magnificently regular gourd. 108 4 Fig. 10.—Work of Phanæus Milo: the largest of the gourds observed (natural size). The loam is probably first kneaded into a ball and then scooped out into a large and very thick cup, by means of the pressure of the fore-legs and the work of the shield. [ ]Even thus do the Copris and the Sacred Beetle act when preparing, on the top of their round ball, the bowl in which the egg will be laid before the final manipulation of the ovoid or pear. 109 In this first business, Phanæus is simply a potter. So long as it be plastic, any clay serves his turn, however meagrely it be saturated with the juices emanating from the carcass. He now becomes a pork-butcher. With his toothed knife, he carves, he saws some tiny shreds from the rotten animal; he tears off, cuts away what he deems best suited to the grub’s entertainment. He collects all these fragments and mixes them with choice loam in the spots where the sanies abounds. The whole, cunningly kneaded and softened, becomes a ball obtained on the spot, without any rolling process, in the same way as the globe of the other pill-manufacturers. Let us add that this ball, a ration calculated by the needs of the grub, is very nearly constant in size, whatever the thickness of the final calabash. The sausage-meat is now ready. It is set in place in the wide-open clay bowl. Loosely packed, without compression, the food will remain free, will not stick to its wrapper. Next, the potter’s work is renewed. The insect presses the thick lips of the clayey cup, rolls them out and applies them to the forcemeat preparation, which is eventually contained by a thin partition at the top and by a thick layer every elsewhere. A large circular pad is left on the top partition, which is slender in view of the weakness of the grub that is to perforate it later, when making for the provisions. Manipulated in its turn, this pad is converted into a hemispherical hollow, in which the egg is forthwith laid.[ ] 110 The work is finished by rolling out and joining the edges of the little crater, which closes and becomes the hatching-chamber. Here, especially, a delicate dexterity becomes essential. At the time that the nipple of the calabash is being shaped, the insect, while packing the material, must leave the little channel which is to form the ventilating-shaft, following the line of the axis. This narrow conduit, which an ill-calculated pressure might stop up beyond hope of remedy, seems to me extremely difficult to obtain. The most skilful of our potters could not manage it without the aid of a needle, which he would afterwards withdraw. The insect, a sort of jointed automaton, obtains its channel through the massive nipple of the gourd without so much as a thought. If it did give it a thought, it would not succeed. The calabash is made: there remains the decoration. This is the work of patient after-touches which perfect the curves and leave on the soft loam a series of stippled impressions similar to those which the potter of prehistoric days distributed with the end of his thumb over his big-bellied jars. That ends the work. The insect will begin all over again under a fresh carcass; for each burrow has one calabash and no more, even as with the Sacred Beetle and her pears. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jean-Henri Fabre (2022). The Life and Love of the Insect. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/68974/pg68974-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

JONES LANG LASALLE

jll.com

10K+ employees

Since 2017

COMPANY RANKING

JONES LANG LASALLE

EVERGREEN INDEX #5619

Representing this company? Click here to claim and customize this page!

Jones Lang LaSalle WIKI

Apply to get your Tech Company News Page live on HackerNoon.com today!

JONES LANG LASALLE

jll.com

10K+ employees

Since 2017

COMPANY RANKING

JONES LANG LASALLE

EVERGREEN INDEX #5619

RELATED COMPANIESRANK

STORIES ABOUT JONES LANG LASALLE

Representing this company? Click here to claim and customize this page!

Jones Lang LaSalle WIKI

Apply to get your Tech Company News Page live on HackerNoon.com today!