Photon is a prescription network built around the patient experience

Photon Health

This is the fifth piece in a series on developing XR applications and experiences using Oracle and focuses on XR applications of healthcare, vision AI, training and collaboration, and messaging, including other topics such as multi-platform development, etc. Find the links to the first four articles below: Develop XR With Oracle, Ep 1: Spatial, AI/ML, Kubernetes, and OpenTelemetry Develop XR With Oracle, Ep 2: Property Graphs and Data Visualization Develop XR With Oracle, Ep 3: Computer Vision AI, and ML Develop XR With Oracle, Ep 4: Digital Twins and Observability As with the previous posts, I will specifically show applications developed with Oracle database and cloud technologies using HoloLens 2, Oculus, iPhone, and PC and written using the Unity platform and OpenXR (for multi-platform support), Apple Swift, and WebXR. Throughout the blog, I will reference the corresponding demo video below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTe2trT2ZHM&embedable=true Extended Reality (XR) and Healthcare I will refer the reader to the first article in this series (again, the link is above) for an overview of XR, and I will not go in-depth into the vast array of technology involved in the healthcare sector but will instead focus on the XR-enablement of these topics and the use of Oracle tech to this end particularly as Oracle has an increased focus in this area via the Cerner acquisition and other endeavors. It is well known that telehealth has grown tremendously since the pandemic, peaking at 78 times the rate just a month before the pandemic and even now still leveling off at 38 times that rate. These and other numbers and their impact are well documented in numerous publications, such as this and the , which will be referenced in this article. One only needs to have heard of the to understand the extent to which XR will aid in this industry, and so again, I will not delve too deeply into attempting to prove this, but proceed to give some examples and ideas involving Oracle database and cloud technologies. McKinsey report VR/AR Associations Healthcare Forum use of XR for live surgeries by Johns Hopkins back in 2021 Vision AI and Contextual Intelligence: Real-time analysis and diagnosis The first example involves the use of the Hololens mixed-reality headset (though other headsets/devices could be used) and Oracle’s Vision AI service. It should not be much of a stretch of the imagination to envision healthcare workers wearing XR devices that provide additional functionality and information to them (and indeed, many already are). Today doctors, dentists, etc. constantly cross-reference a computer screen with a patient to check for information and orient what they see (being x-ray, MRI, etc.) and often where head-mounted lights, monocular magnifying glasses, etc. The XR solutions being discussed here are mere evolutions of that. More details on this application can be found in the research blog , but the basic details of how it works are described here. here The application running on the Hololens takes pictures with its built-in camera using the wearer’s field of vision as a reference and does so at regular intervals. This provides a hands-free experience that is, at the very least, more convenient. Still, in many situations, like in the operating room, it’s necessary for users’ hands to interact with the real (or XR) world, thus making it a more optimal solution. This also means the system can pick up contextual information that the practitioner may not be aware of or have access to while quickly gathering and processing such information without the practitioner having to explicitly instruct it, thus saving time as well. This leads to the optimization that mixed reality provides, an exciting byproduct of immersion. via secure REST calls, where they can be conveniently accessed by directly and also stored and/or accessed in the database. The Hololens then sends these pictures to OCI Object Storage the OCI Vision AI Service There are several different approaches and architectures that can be used from this point to conduct the logic and calls to the Oracle Vision AI APIs for processing the images sent by the XR device. For example, as far as language used, initial versions were written using the OCI CLI, Java, and Python, with a final Java GraalVM-native image version being used. Also, as the Java GraalM native image starts almost instantaneously when the service conducts a particular short-lived routine, it is a good candidate for a serverless function. Optionally, the OCI Notification Service can listen to Object Store changes and call serverless functions as well. The Java service receives a notification of image upload to object storage and conducts a series of actions as follows: Conducts an OCI Vision AI service API call backed by an x-ray object detection model and provides the location of the image sent by the Hololens. Receives a reply from the object detection model with the percentage chance of the x-ray being in the image and the bounding coordinates of it. Crops the original image using the bounding coordinates. Conducts another OCI Vision AI service API call backed by an x-ray classification model and provides it the cropped image of the x-ray. Receives a reply from the image classification model with percentage change of x-ray containing signs of abnormalities/pneumonia. The Hololens application receives this reply and notifies the wearer with an audible notification – this is configurable and can also be visual. In the case of this application, the information includes the picture of the cropped x-ray with its discovered details listed and stored in a virtual menu located on the wrist and viewable by the wearer only. This approach prevents the interruption of the wearer though it is also possible to overlay the results on the real-life x-ray from which they were derived. Vision AI and XR are a natural match for solutions in a number of areas, including both healthcare workers, as shown here, and people with conditions such as Parkinson’s, autism, Alzheimer’s, vision and hearing impairment, etc.. (e.g., applications/solutions that can be used in this space is described in ) this blog Motion and Sentiment Study: Real-time face and body tracking analytics Today, 95% of healthcare facilities provide remote treatment and rehabilitation. XR technologies can be used to help patients better understand their conditions and treatment options. This can help patients feel more informed and empowered in their healthcare decisions. The next example was implemented using the iPhone and Swift using Apple’s for body tracking movements. The joint coordinates of a model movement are recorded and sent to the Oracle database via Rest calls to ORDS. A person (whether it be a patient, athlete, etc.) using the application attempts to conduct the same movement, and their joint coordinates are compared to those of the model movement stored in the database. If the allowable deviation/delta of the movements is exceeded, the corresponding joints and bones are shown in red rather than green. RealityKit This feedback is given in real-time to measure progress (e.g., after a rotator cuff or other surgery) and/or to allow the user to modify their movement to match the control model as well as work on balance and coordination. These movements can, in turn, be analyzed (more on XR and Oracle Analytics in an upcoming blog), replayed, manipulated to carry out simulations, etc. These use cases, of course, extend into the sports, entertainment, etc. sectors as well. Digital Twins + Doubles and Multiplayer/Participant Messaging: Training and Collaboration A recent study reported by Unity shows that approximately 94% of companies using real-time 3D technology find it valuable for staff training and are using it to create interactive guided learning experiences. This applies across industries, including manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, retail, and many more, and some trends in the area (many of which coincide with what is shown in this blog) are discussed . here XR technologies can be used to create realistic simulations of medical scenarios, allowing healthcare professionals to practice procedures and techniques in a safe and controlled environment. For example, medical students and surgeons can use XR simulations to practice surgeries with tactile sensations giving the feedback of real surgery, and nurses can use AR simulations to practice administering medications. This can help healthcare professionals gain valuable experience without risking patient safety. In addition to teaching, XR provides a unique ability for collaboration between individuals in different locations and specialties, creating a shared virtual space where multiple users can interact with each other and with virtual objects. There are several different techniques and software options available for creating XR multiplayer/participant training and collaboration, including XR conferencing software and metaverses, Photon and others like it, Rest, WebSockets, and different types of messaging. XR conferencing software and platforms, such as Alakazam, are becoming increasingly popular and allow multiple users to participate in virtual meetings, events, training sessions, etc. Photon is a platform that allows developers to create multiplayer games and applications using Unity, Unreal Engine, and other game engines and can easily be installed on and take advantage of Oracle Cloud compute (including ). It is perhaps the most famous of such platforms, but there are others. NVIDIA GPU WebSockets are a protocol for real-time communication between web clients and servers and can be a faster and more efficient method for such use cases than Rest though Rest calls are a simple, viable option in many cases as well, and more APIs are available via Rest in general than any of the other methods. Messaging is another technique that can be used to create XR training and collaboration experiences. Systems such as Kafka and JMS have both pub/sub (multi-consumer topics) and producer/consumer (single-consumer topics) and are very flexible for different training and collaboration needs. In the training application shown in the video, I used a number of the techniques above but focused on using Oracle’s TxEventQ messaging engine (formerly known as AQ). This is a very powerful and unique offering for a number of reasons, one key one being its ability to conduct database work and messaging work in the same local transaction. This is unique and and also exactly-once message delivery so that there is no message loss and no need for the developer to write deduplication logic. perfectly suited for microservices as it provides a transaction outbox pattern This may not be necessary for conventional gaming or movie streaming but is a must for mission-critical systems and provides some extremely interesting and unique aspects for XR where the ability to reliably store a shared (3D) object (especially those that are dynamic or created via generative AI, e.g.) and the interactions/messages that have been made upon it by various participants is a very powerful tool. That is precisely what is done in the app shown in the video. The collaborative session is not only recorded in 3d for viewing as a video but the actual objects and their interactions by participants are recorded in the database and available for playback so that they can be intercepted and manipulated later on. This allows for the ability to do deeper learning and run further models (AI or otherwise), simulations, scenarios, etc., by tweaking the objects and interactions like/with playbooks. With the development of more advanced technology and more powerful devices, XR training will become more prevalent in the near future, making the training experience more immersive and interactive. One other small note is that the app in the video has healthcare workers in full 3d volumetric video captures made professionally in a studio but also one that is a simple 2d video with the green screen alpha-channel removed via a Unity shader providing a similar holographic effect with minimal effort (the quality could be better with more effort re lighting, etc.). A Zoom virtual greenscreen could be used to this end as well as free assets with animation done in Blender. Unity, Zoom, and Blender all being free and use the Oracle always-free Autonomous database, making creating the solution very accessible as far as software and cloud costs. Data EcoSystem: Telehealth and Virtual Health Centers A virtual healthcare center or hospital is a healthcare facility that provides medical services through digital channels such as video conferencing, online chat, remote monitoring, and, increasingly, XR technologies. These digital tools allow patients to access healthcare services from the comfort of their homes or remote locations without the need to physically visit a hospital or clinic. The concept of a virtual healthcare center is becoming increasingly popular due to the growing demand for telemedicine services, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. A virtual healthcare center can provide a wide range of medical services such as primary care, specialty consultations, diagnostic tests, and prescription refills and offers convenience and flexibility to patients who can access medical services from anywhere and at any time. This can be especially beneficial for patients with mobility issues, those living in rural areas, or patients who need to consult with a specialist who is not available in their local area. It can also reduce healthcare costs for both patients and healthcare providers. By using remote consultations and monitoring, healthcare providers can reduce the need for expensive in-person consultations and hospital stays. Patients can also save money on transportation costs and time off from work. A virtual healthcare center can improve the quality of care for patients. With remote monitoring, patients can receive personalized and continuous care, with healthcare providers able to monitor their health in real-time and intervene quickly if necessary. This can result in better health outcomes and reduced hospital readmissions. However, there are also some challenges to implementing virtual healthcare centers. These include issues around data privacy and security, as well as the need for adequate internet access and digital literacy among patients. In addition, some patients may still prefer traditional in-person care, and, though decreasing in number, there are limitations to what medical services can be provided remotely. The concept of a virtual healthcare center has the potential to revolutionize the way healthcare is delivered, with benefits for both patients and healthcare providers. However, careful consideration and planning are needed to ensure that the implementation of virtual healthcare centers is safe, effective, and equitable for all patients. Oracle, with its acquisition of Cerner and increased focus on the future of healthcare, is in a one-of-a-kind position to facilitate such XR solutions by its ability to “Deliver better health insights and human-centric experiences for patients, providers, payers, and the public. Oracle Health offers the most secure and reliable healthcare solutions, which connect clinical, operational, and financial data to improve care and advance decision-making around health and well-being.” ( ). Larry Ellison made this clear at his Oracle OpenWorld presentation, where healthcare was the priority for Oracle’s future, and earlier in the year when he , “Together, Cerner and Oracle have all the technology required to build a revolutionary new health management information system in the cloud.” Oracle Health page stated Mental Health Over 20% of American adults experience mental illness, while over 2.5M youth struggle with severe depression and 800,000 people commit suicide each year in the world due to mental illness. Simultaneously, there is a growing deficit of mental health professionals, which is a nationwide issue but is particularly severe for minors and adolescents. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the country is expected to have a shortage of 10,000 mental health professionals by 2025. Mental health is one of the areas where XR has been most widely researched and proven extremely effective as a way to deliver therapies and treatments for mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. For example, VR exposure therapy can be used to help patients confront and overcome their fears by exposing them to simulations of the things they are afraid of in a controlled and safe environment. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), XR can be used to create immersive, meditative experiences to promote mindfulness, relaxation, and stress reduction. For example, VR environments can simulate peaceful and calming natural environments, such as beaches, forests, mountains, or space. Children, the elderly, and others that may spend prolonged periods in hospitals, etc., are using XR to explore the world and socialize. Using XR and teletherapy, therapists can create virtual environments that can simulate in-person therapy sessions, providing a more immersive and personalized experience while reducing the inhibitions of the patient and even allowing the use of AR lenses and avatars for privacy. NLP (Natural Language Processing) sentiment analysis, such as that provided by the corresponding Oracle AI service, can interpret emotions and intent from verbal communication, and with advances in facial recognition and facial sentiment analysis, it is now possible with great accuracy to detect the emotions a person is feeling and/or expressing non-verbally (the same follows for body/gesture tracking). Neuro-technology and neural interfaces in coordination with XR can now interpret and give insight into human intent and measure emotion, providing even greater insight into intent and emotion. And, of course, the world is quite familiar with the greater and simpler accessibility of AI interfaces such as ChatGPT, etc., to facilitate this. As with the X-ray example given earlier, these can, in some situations, provide greater and more consistent accuracy and speed than a human but can also act as assisting technologies for healthcare workers. More examples of this will be in upcoming blogs. Additional Thoughts I have given some ideas and examples of how healthcare and XR can be used together and facilitated by Oracle. I look forward to putting out more blogs on this topic and other areas of XR with Oracle Cloud and Database soon. Please see for more information on XR and Oracle cloud and database, as well as various topics around microservices, observability, transaction processing, etc., as well as this . Also, please feel free to contact me with any questions or suggestions for new blogs and videos, as I am very open to suggestions. Thanks for reading and watching. my other publications recent blog about what AR is

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331 Stories To Learn About Iot

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CRISPR, Quantum, Graphene, Smart Dust, Digital Twins, the Metaverse… You’ve heard about it all. Seen it all. Read it all. These technologies no longer hold any secrets for you. Hell, you even regularly mention them over dinner and at work, and have become the go-to person for questions about future innovations. Yet, technology is ever-changing, and this precious knowledge must be both managed and updated regularly. With this in mind, I’ve put together a list of 10 technologies that are likely to make big waves in the future, but are not on the public’s radar as of today. 1. Femtosecond Projection Two-Photon Lithography What is it? 3D printing is still a solution looking for a problem, having failed to find its target audience over the past decade. On the one hand, 3D printers are still too expensive for the average Joe; on the other, they are not sophisticated and fast enough for large-scale manufacturing companies. This may change over the next few years: researchers have developed a method that uses lasers to . To easily understand FP-TPL, simply imagine using a million heated needles to strategically melt a block of wax versus using a single needle. This means that incredibly tiny structures can be 3D-printed (a thousand times faster, give or take), while still ensuring a good quality of build. project millions of points simultaneously onto 3D-printing material, instead of using one point at a time. And because they’re bad at branding, they called it Femtosecond projection TPL much, much faster How will it change the world? So far, teams working on the innovation seem focused on flexible electronics and micro-optics. However, quick discoveries around materials (both liquid and solid) have led researchers to think that they will be able to build small but imagination-baffling structures in the near future. Once the quality can be controlled over large scales, one could easily imagine this technology being used for the creation of , allowing for the treatment of a multitude of diseases on the molecular level. healthcare-related nanorobots - Read more on Femtosecond Projection Two-Photon Lithography HERE [Science]. 2. LiFi What is it? The name says it all : The technology works by encoding digital data and turning LED bulbs on and off faster than humans can notice to transfer it. The light then travels to a photoreceptor, which can decode and translate the data to a more classic radio frequency (WiFi, 4G, 5G…). LiFi aims to use light to transmit information from point A to point B. There are a lot of advantages in doing things this way. What with light being used, the speed at which the information is transmitted is very, very high — up to 100 Gbit/s, in theory; 5 times faster than 5G. Furthermore, the sheer number of LED bulbs already around us hints at a potential future wherein (cheap) access points to receive data are everywhere. Finally, the light waves used as the basis for LiFi do not pass through walls (but can however be reflected off of them). The risk of hacking is therefore much lower than with WiFi, though this seriously limits indoor use cases. On the other hand, the use of LiFi requires one to be near an operating light source. Its range is thus very limited, and interference is possible with other light sources such as natural sunlight. How will it change the world? As of today, the technology is very much of a niche, despite having been hyped in some circles for half a decade now. One obstacle to popular adoption is the size and price of photoreceptors. As such, key use cases are within areas which are particularly sensible to hacking and/or electromagnetic interference, such as hospitals, aircrafts, military operations… There are also talks of using it for unmanned underwater vehicles, as well as for street lights, to communicate with smart vehicles, or about municipal services to citizens should the technology become more democratised. - Read more on LiFi HERE [Digital Trends]. 3. Energy-storing Bricks What is it? Researchers have managed to store energy in the we’ve been using for construction throughout the world for centuries. This process works for two reasons : bricks are porous, and contain something called hematite (which gives it its colour). . . This polymer is trapped in the porous surface of the brick, forming a continuous and electrically conductive layer on each of its faces. The humble building block can then act as an ion sponge to store and conduct electricity. cheap red bricks For these bricks to store and then release energy, researchers heat them to 160 degrees and vaporize their surface with hydrochloric acid mixed with an organic compound called EDOT When in contact with hematite, this mix causes a chemical reaction, creating a new plastic nanofiber coating called PEDOT For now, the amount of energy these bricks can store is still low, but the proof of concept is a staggering success. It’s possible to power a small lamp for 50 minutes with 60 bricks, which doesn’t sound like much until you realise it only takes 13 minutes for these bricks to recharge. This technology also has a long lifespan, since even after 10,000 storage and retrieval cycles, the bricks still retain 90% of their original capacity, without altering the rate of charge and discharge. How will it change the world? The main benefit of this technology would come about when used at a house a house equipped with solar panels. The bricks could then store unused electricity and thus compensate for the intermittence of this renewable energy. This would make our homes more self-sufficient in energy and less dependent on electric cables and/or the likes of lithium batteries. Discussions are currently underway with several companies in Europe and the United States to consider its commercialization, and know that the next generation of bricks will be able to increase its energy capacity by 50%. Enough to charge a laptop? Only time will tell. - Read more on Energy-Storing Bricks HERE [Nature]. 4. Robotic bees What is it? Let’s honest, it’s not great out there, climate-wise. And that’s killing bees, which we need to pollinate 35% of our crops, which we need for food, which we need for not being dead. Are we going to stop climate change to save the bees? Of course not, that’s not how we roll. Instead, we’re going to create robotic bees to pollinate plants just as the real things do. And when I say “we”, . bee I of course mean Walmart Details are scarce, but most researchers estimate that the bees would work by . Researchers at have long been working on using such techniques. What Walmart offers on top is a wide array of sensors, cameras, artificial intelligence… to locate the relevant crops and pollinate them as needed. attaching horse hair coated with ionic liquid gel to a tiny drone. The hair picks up pollen from one flower, and moves it to the next Harvard “RoboBees” If that feels like the premise of a Black Mirror episode, . you’d be right How will it change the world? If the costs of operating such a technology continues to decrease, we could see autonomous insect pollinate large fields in the coming years, which could save thousands of farmers from ruin, and ensure we can still have almond milk on the superstores’ shelves. I however have a few gripes with it. Firstly, small farmers might never be able to afford robotic bees, and we would once again be empowering the big guy against the little guy. We also don’t know how these “bees” would impact the fauna overall, both on and off the fields. ? How about we try to save the real bees, instead - Read more on Robotic bees HERE [The Wall Street Journal]. 5. Unnamed Dynamic Neural Networks technology What is it? uses hidden layers to break down information (the input-images, audio, videos, handwritten text…) into tiny pieces of easily understandable components, allowing a computer to inform a prediction about the nature of said input. It does this thanks to a wide array of training data and mathematical models. In doing so, it works “similarly” to our brain, hence the technology’s name. This is far from new, but the world of data science has been on the lookout for faster and more efficient ways of using neural networks to serve the upcoming IoT revolution. Neural network . If you managed to get through this sentence, you understand that it gets us a whole lot closer to how a brain actually works. Patent 10410117 proposes a way to do just that by storing the training data and mathematical models within the “hidden layers” (nodes) of the network itself, creating a sort of library that can be used to train another device Note that the marketers haven’t gotten to this one yet, hence the name. How will it change the world? First and foremost, the technology reduces computing resources required of the host CPU and cuts back on costs of running data centers, something which seems benign compared to all the issues discussed in this article, but is nevertheless incredibly important at scale. It also reduces environmental costs of these centers, which is always a plus. By optimising neural networks for speed, accuracy and power consumption, the technology will lead to improvements in the realm of surveillance, advanced driver assistance systems, autonomous vehicles, vision guided robotics, drones, augmented and virtual reality, acoustic analysis, and Industrial Internet-of-Things. All worthy endeavours, if you’re into that type of thing. - Read more on Patent 10410117 HERE [Google Patents]. 6. Seawater fuel What is it? When it comes to energy, the sea remains a massive untapped resource; it’s not like we’re going to run out of it anytime soon, what with the North Pole melting. And according to researchers, it could soon be put to good use as fuel for ships. Bear with me : ( ) via the . The carbon monoxide via the . Ships can then use this hydrocarbon instead of pre-onboarded fuel which, as we know, carries many risks. the process uses a potassium-promoted molybdenum carbide catalyst bless you to extract carbon dioxide from seawater, turning it into carbon monoxide reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) reaction can in turn be converted into a hydrocarbon Fischer-Tropsch synthesis How will it change the world? The fuel currently used to power the thousands of ships that cross the seas and oceans daily is very polluting. The conversion of CO2 into chemicals and value-added fuels could significantly reduce the greenhouse gases they emit over the long term. There are however a handful of issues which need fixing before we get to greener maritime routes. Firstly, carbon dioxide concentration in seawater is about 100 milligrams per liter. That’s not much. To put it into perspective, you’d need to process close to 45 million cubic meters of water to power a cruise ship for about a week. And the more water you process, the more sea life you remove from the food chain, with potentially catastrophic long-term results. Secondly, you’re still releasing carbon into the air at the end of the day, even if it’s water-based carbon. You could argue that it’s a net neutral as it will get back to the sea eventually, but if you’re at all ecologically-conscious, you know this is a slippery slope. - Read more on Seawater Fuel HERE [Energy & Environmental Science Journal]. 7. 20-minute Water What is it? Not all tech needs to be high; there’s often something rather elegant in low-tech solutions to complex problems. 20-minute water is one of these solutions, promising to provide clean drinking water to the masses. (which is highly conductive) . Twenty volts is enough to instantly electrocute bacteria and make the water passing through this filter (mostly) drinkable, without the need for the electricity-thirsty pumps that are used throughout the developing world. The silver then neutralises anything that’s not been killed by the electrical current. All one needs to do is soak a piece of cotton for 20 minutes in an inexpensive solution containing carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires, then connect it to two electric wires to pass a little current through it How will it change the world? The recipe was concocted especially for developing countries — remote areas where people don’t have access to chemical treatments such as chlorine. It could save some of the of waterborne diseases such as the cholera, typhoid and hepatitis. It could also help some of the . 300,000 children under 5 who die worldwide every year 2.2 billion people who don’t have a wastewater treatment system Unlike other innovations in this article, this one hardly has any downsides. It’s very cheap : the amount of silver used for the nanowires is so small the cost is negligible, and the electricity needed can be easily supplied by a small solar panel or a couple 12-volt car batteries. Since the filter doesn’t trap bacteria (killing them instead), it can have much larger pores, allowing water to speed through at a more rapid rate. More than 80,000 times faster than existing filters, to be exact. And it does so without clogging, an issue which plagues existing solutions. - Read more on 20-minute Water HERE [Stanford News]. 8. Zero-knowledge proof What is it? Privacy: ever heard of it? Computer scientists are perfecting . It sounds incredible but not impossible once you wrap your head around the concept and the fact that it’s a bit more complex than saying “ ”. a cryptographic tool we could use to prove something without revealing the information underlying the proof c’mon bro, you know I’m good for it Allow me to simplify through an example. Imagine, if you will, that a man named John has a blind friend named Jane. He also has in his possession two marbles of different colours, though they are identical in shape and size. Jane puts them behind her back and shows one to John. She then does it again, either changing the marble or showing the same one again, asking if this is the same as the marble previously shown. If John were guessing whether it was the same or not, he would have a 50/50 chance of getting it right, so she does it again. And again. And because John sees the marbles’ colours, he gets it right each time, and the chance that he guessed lucky diminishes. Jane thus knows that John knows which marble is the original shown (and its colour), without her ever knowing the colour of any of the marbles. Boom, zero-knowledge proof. Or zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge if you’re family. Obviously, it all gets mathematic and cryptographic from here, but you get the gist. How will it change the world? It’s easy to come up with VERY cool use cases. For example, if an app needs to know that you have enough money to put a transaction through : your bank could communicate that yes, that is the case, without giving an amount. It could also help identify a person without a birth certificate, allow someone to enter a restricted website without needing to display their date of birth... or help with nuclear disarmament. additionally, it could provide proof of a crypto-currency transaction without revealing its amount (BitCoin is, and always will be, too public for me — !). . Go Zcash Yay for privacy, and here’s to an hopefully dying targeted advertising industry - Read more on Zero-Knowledge Proof HERE [Wikipedia]. 9. YOLOv5 What is it? Real-time object detection is a technique used to detect objects from video. It’s the underlying technology behind… well, most things we want to use in the future, from Tesla’s self-driving cars to Amazon’s cashierless stores. The YOLO (“You Only Look Once”) models refer to some of the most versatile and famous . real-time object detection and labelling models The latest iteration (V5) of the model is worthy of this list for a couple of reasons. It’s written in PyTorch, which will make its deployment to mobile a lot easier. It’s also quick. Very quick. , while also preserving accuracy. Finally, YOLOv5 is nearly 90 percent smaller than YOLOv4. This means it will be deployed to embedded devices much more easily. 140 frames per second quick How will it change the world? This innovation is important because it means we will soon be able to do real-time analysis — detecting and labelling videos 140 times per second. For context, previous models struggled to get to 10 frames per second. At this speed, you can use AI on videos of fields as varied as the world of medicine or that of sport. It can also improve things like detecting obstacles in autonomous cars earlier to avoid even more collisions. It’s a really big deal, but one you surely won’t hear about in the newspapers. real - Read more on YOLOv5 HERE [GitHub]. 10. 4D-printing What is it? The name 4D printing can lead to confusion: I am not implying that humanity will be able to create and access another dimension ( ). Put simply, ( ). The 4th D is therefore Time; time needed for the stimulus to be relevant. Only Rubik can do that a 4D-printed product is a 3D-printed object which can change properties when a specific stimulus is applied submerged underwater, heated, shaken, not stirred… The key challenges of this technology is obviously finding the relevant “smart material” for all types of uses (namely a or a for the time being). Some work is being done in this space, but we’re not even close to being customer-ready, having yet to master reversible changes of certain materials. hydrogel shape memory polymer How will it change the world? The applications are still being discussed, but some very promising industries include (pills that activate only if the body reaches a certain temperature), (clothes that become tighter in cold temperature), and (furniture that becomes rigid under a certain stimulus). healthcare fashion home-making Another really cool use case is , wherein objects larger than printers can be printed as only one part. computational folding - Read more on 4D-Printing HERE [Sculpteo]. Obviously, it’s always possible that some of these innovations will never become popularised. This should however not stop us from aiming to better understand them : the knowledge gained through planning is crucial to the selection of appropriate actions as future events unfold. A basic understanding of new technologies can also help us steer clear of potentially destructive ones. Good luck out there. Also published here.

Ten Future Technologies That Aren't in the Public Eye (Yet)

While making GeekForge — a daily listing of interesting coding tasks — we researched several sources where you can learn AR and VR development, and we thought it would be a good idea to share this list with you. Augmented reality and virtual reality were a mystery to most people until showed us how AR can expand gaming capabilities and how transformed the headset from a silly device into a limitless playground. Pokémon GO Oculus For now, entertainment seems to be the main use of this technology, but with time it will become more and more important for many other domains, such as surgical training, long-distance education, or military and space training. A successful implementation in any of these fields could make a significant dent in the history of technology use. According to some recent , the few developers that had the courage to try AR and VR development are only treating it as a side hobby. For the technology to become mature enough to deal with the real problems of our society we need more dedicated people. I’d like to give you a hand in that direction and come with a hand-picked list of the best resources that not only would get you started but also could push you beyond the “just a hobby” stage. studies 1) Getting started with Augmented Reality at Coursera This course will teach you the basics of developing mobile applications using Mixed and Augmented Reality (MAR) technologies. 2) Introduction to Augmented Reality and ARCore at Class Central This class will teach you the fundamentals of augmented reality (AR) and how to build an AR experience using ARCore. 3) Daily email list of AR and VR coding tasks from GeekForge You can solve tasks independently or discuss them with the community. It’s the best way to educate yourself on new technology while building a portfolio of your completed tasks at the same time. 4) A Beginner’s Guide to Augmented Reality with Unity at Udemy Learn to create mobile AR applications with Wikitude by integrating ARKit and ARCore for iOS and Android. 5) AR & Video Streaming Services Emerging Technologies at Coursera The objective of this course is to teach the all important technologies that are used in state-of-the-art AR, Skype, and YouTube vmultimedia products and services. 6) Internet of Things using Augmented Reality in Unity IoTAR at Udemy This course teaches practical AR for Internet of Things using Vuforia and Unity on Particle Photon. 7) Introduction to Virtual Reality at Udacity This course is designed for students who are new to virtual reality and want to learn about the principles of VR technology, including optics, displays, stereopsis, tracking, and major hardware platforms. 8) How Virtual Reality Works at edX Learn how virtual reality technology works by writing simple VR programs with WebVR. 9) VFX and Virtual Reality Theory Basics at Skillshare This theory course will help you get a good grasp on how VR ties into the visual effects (VFX) industry. 10) Virtual Reality Foundations at Lynda.com Join 3D artist Craig Barr for an overview of virtual reality: what it is, where it’s used, and what’s in store for the future of VR. 11) Virtual Reality Overview for Developers at Lynda.com In this course, learn how to start developing for VR. Michael House equips you with the knowledge and skills you need to tackle a number of different VR projects using Google VR for Android. 12) The VR Book: Human-Centered Design for Virtual Reality at Amazon This book focuses on the human element of VR rather than the technical implementation. 13) Virtual Reality Insider: Guidebook for the VR Industry at Amazon This book takes a practical approach describing the current landscape in VR with the different products and research going on in the space. 14) Virtual & Augmented Reality for 3D at LinkedIn In this weekly series, 3D artist and expert Craig Barr explores the different kinds of immersive realities. 15) Creating Virtual Reality (VR) Apps at edX Learn the tools and techniques to develop your own professional VR app in Unity 3D. 16) Virtual Reality TED Talks on YouTube In these talks, you’ll find insights on how VR experiences are impacting training and development, healthcare, and even our own self-perception. Virtual reality is an emerging technology. While many other technologies had found their experts in the early years, there is still room for developers to claim their spot in the fields of AR and VR. Do you want to be one of the experts in the field? You can start with a video course, a book, or by signing yourself up for the daily tasks on GeekForge. Time to get up and do something!

16 Best Resources to Learn AR and VR Development in 2019

Since the beginning of 2020, the whole world has been all about the outbreak of the coronavirus, also referred to as COVID-19. Labeled a pandemic on March 11, the epidemic affects practically every country and every individual, changing the way we interact, work, study, entertain ourselves, shop, work out, etc. The mobile marketing industry has also experienced the effects of COVID-19. Social distancing policies and other restrictive measures imposed by governments globally make people isolate and look for ways to pass their time under quarantine. It’s not surprising that there’s been an uplift in daily hours spent in mobile across multiple countries: Source: App Annie In the chart above you can see the countries split into three phases. These are waves of the coronavirus spread with China being the most affected region. We’ve decided to take a closer look at the impact of COVID-19 on Apple Search Ads specifically, taking into account the phases of the coronavirus spread. We can’t research China, because obviously Apple Search Ads is unavailable there. So we focused on the following storefronts: The 2nd phase countries affected: South Korea (KR), Japan (JP) and Italy (IT); The 3rd phase countries affected: the US, the United Kingdom (UK), Spain (ES), France (FR) and Germany (DE). The research is aimed to: Understand how the coronavirus outbreak has affected key Apple Search Ads metrics (Downloads, CPA) in different regions, especially the worst–hit countries; Understand how the outbreak has affected user behavior in different categories (Games, Work from Home, Photo & Video, etc.). Check whether there is a growth in the usage of entertainment and remote collaboration apps; Confirm the expected dramatic drop in the usage of travel apps and booking apps for offline events. To understand the impact of the coronavirus on Apple Search Ads, we’ve researched : 6 category groups Games Work from Home: Education, Business, Utilities Photo & Video Health & Fitness Finance Travel, Transportation, Booking 1. Games Sample: The 2nd phase countries (KR, JP & IT): 36 apps, 14.4M impressions, 249K downloads. The 3rd phase countries (US, UK, ES, FR & DE): 67 apps, 36.5M impressions, 821K downloads. While being under quarantine, people seek ways to stay entertained and connected. As expected, games appeared to be one of the key ways to pass time while social distancing. So, in Gaming, we’ve seen a significant increase in Downloads in both country groups. They follow the same exponential trend, but the countries most affected by COVID-19 are the bigger game downloaders. See for yourself: From the charts above, you can see that a huge uplift in downloads starts at the beginning of March 2020 for both country groups. South Korea (SK), Japan (JP) and Italy (IT) have downloaded remarkably more games compared to the 3rd phase countries: the boost in Downloads is 60% against 27% respectively. We’ve also looked at the changes in Cost per Acquisition (CPA) in the Gaming category for both country groups. In the 2nd phase countries, CPA has slightly increased by 10-20%, which is likely to result from more aggressive bidding strategies that publishers are adopting. Companies are aware of the situation and understand that they can seize the moment. Therefore, UAs are increasing bids, which intensifies the competition: As for the 3rd phase countries (US, UK, ES, FR, and DE), the current CPA  trend is stable. While people are downloading more games, advertisers don’t raise their bids. However, this is just a matter of time: publishers are likely to start raising their bids to win users, which may bring about an increase in CPA. But until this occurs, there is an opportunity to scale to these storefronts. Scaling Apple Search Ads for gaming publishers is usually hard, but this is the perfect time for them to try that. Moreover, it makes sense to plan marketing activities in these storefronts now, as it can result in a major further boost. 2. Work from Home: Education, Business, Utilities Sample: The 2nd phase countries (KR, JP & IT): 27 apps, 21.3M impressions, 789K downloads. The 3rd phase countries (US, UK, ES, FR & DE): 50 apps, 47.4M impressions, 2.1M downloads. With social distancing policies introduced due to COVID-19, multiple companies had to make the switch to remote working for their staff. Consequently, the demand for work from home apps has significantly boosted, and “Zoom” has become the defining app of the pandemic period. We took a look at Downloads in this category for the two country groups to find out that in both 2nd and 3rd phase countries the number of Downloads has grown by 120%. As of the end of March, the number of Downloads has more than doubled compared to the period before the coronavirus outbreak. Average CPAs for the period are $0.79 and $1.72 in the 2nd and 3rd phase countries respectively. Cost per Acquisition has barely changed, even decreased by 10-15%, which hasn’t been caused by the increase in auction bids but rather by the natural boost in search traffic: 3. Photo & Video Sample: The 2nd phase countries (KR, JP & IT): 10 apps, 1.2M impressions, 86.3K downloads. The 3rd phase countries (US, UK, ES, FR & DE): 36 apps, 4.5M impressions, 270.1K  downloads. Social distancing doesn’t prevent users from downloading apps in the Photo & Video category. In the 2nd phase countries, we’ve seen a significant 80% growth in the number of Downloads. While being confined to their houses, users are likely to look through vacation photos they took before, edit them and upload to social media. Since online communication is switching from text-based to visual, social distancing increases the popularity and adoption of Photo & Video apps: The average CPA in the 2nd phase countries has been up by 21%, meaning that the industry is quickly adapting to changes caused by COVID-19 and publishers are advertising more aggressively. Let’s move on to the 3rd phase countries. The number of Downloads there has grown by 15%, while CPA has dropped by 5%. As you can see, COVID-19 has barely impacted the Photo & Video category in these countries, but growth is likely to occur in the near future. 4. Health & Fitness Sample: The 2nd phase countries (KR, JP & IT): 27 apps, 5.5M impressions, 220.4K downloads. The 3rd phase countries (US, UK, ES, FR & DE): 36 apps, 16.2M impressions, 840K downloads. We discovered that the downloads trend for the 2nd phase countries follows a U-curve: a sharp decline at the beginning of the outbreak is followed by a sharp increase from March 2020: What are the possible reasons for the U-curve? Firstly, it is likely that some publishers in this category have chosen a moderate advertising strategy and lowered their budgets. Secondly, other publishers may have modified their strategy, in other words, they reconsidered their apps positioning, for example, from regular fitness to home workout apps. Overall, the average number of Downloads in the 2nd phase countries has decreased by 25%, while CPA has dropped by 42%. The drop is more likely to be caused by the previous holidays – Christmas and New Year. The post-holiday season is a peak time for fitness apps as many people make resolutions to work out and lose weight. Given this circumstance, the influence of COVID-19 on the decrease in downloads is not so big. As for the 3rd phase of countries, Downloads have dropped by 17% and CPA by 38%: We’ve also found out that the popularity of mindfulness and meditation apps has grown, meaning that people seek ways to cope with anxiety caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Publishers in the Fitness category who manage to quickly adjust their positioning to the needs of users have a good chance of winning a large market share. A/B tests can help a lot when you make product decisions. Even before the development and release of a new feature or product, you can run A/B experiments with rebranded assets and understand whether the repositioned product can resonate with your audience. You can save your resources – time and money – by using . the SplitMetrics platform 5. Finance Sample: The 2nd phase countries (KR, JP & IT): 6 apps, 3.3M impressions, 35.6K downloads. The 3rd phase countries (US, UK, ES, FR & DE): 9 apps, 3.6M impressions, 56.2K downloads. The sample size is based on apps linked to SearchAdsHQ. The limited number of financial apps may affect the accuracy of data. In the financial sector, we’ve seen the rise of such financial instruments as investments in stocks, as well as e-wallets and wire transfers. As seen from the trends below, the average number of financial apps  Downloads in the 2nd phase countries has increased by 150%. At the same time, CPA in South Korea, Japan and Italy has grown by approximately 35%, which indicates that traffic and competition are growing. We’ve seen a slower increase in Downloads (compared to South Korea, Japan and Italy) in the 3rd phase countries – by 67%: We dug deeper into the data to discover that the growth was mainly due to the US (in the 3rd phase group) and Japan (in the 2nd phase group). It turns out that advertisers are allocating bigger budgets for these segments, which is coupled with an increase in the popularity of financial apps. As for Europe, publishers of financial apps don’t follow aggressive advertising strategies there, which can be attributed to industry regulatory restrictions. 6. Travel, Transportation, Booking Sample: The 2nd phase countries (KR, JP & IT):  5 apps, 261K impressions, 29K downloads. The 3rd phase countries (US, UK, ES, FR & DE): 12 apps, 3M impressions, 150.4K downloads. The sample size is based on apps linked to SearchAdsHQ. The limited number of Travel, Transportation and Booking apps may affect the accuracy of data. In the 2nd phase countries, we can see a significant decline in the number of Downloads. It has decreased three times during the period under research, making up only 33% of the Downloads number as of the beginning of January. At the same time, the average CPA in the category group has decreased by 55%. Obviously, publishers in Travel are aware that the demand for their apps is going to fall sharply, so they choose a moderate acquisition strategy: they cut their Apple Search Ads budgets in the 2nd phase countries. Budget cuts and the decrease in search traffic in these countries result in such a significant drop in the number of Downloads. Regardless of the limited sample, we can still predict that the downtrend will hold true for the entire Travel segment. As for the 3d phase countries, the decrease in Downloads is not that significant, having dropped by 25%: The average CPA in Travel, Transportation, Booking has also declined two times, by about 51%: Obviously, the decrease in the 3rd phase countries lags behind the decline observed in South Korea, Japan and Italy. However, advertisers are already cutting their budgets, getting ready for tough times. In addition, a moderate fall in the 3rd phase countries may result from the fact that ride-sharing apps had been in big demand until the restrictions on movement were imposed. The popularity of these apps balanced out the fall in other niches. Key Takeaways 1. It’s likely that the majority of the App Store publishers who run Apple Search Ads won’t be severely affected by the changes in user behavior resulting from COVID-19. Publishers in will only benefit from the crisis since users are increasing the usage of apps belonging to these categories. Games, Business, Education, Entertainment, Photo & Video Such categories as and will be negatively affected. Travel, Booking Transportation 2. In the 2nd phase countries, we can observe . Tougher restrictive measures imposed by governments in South Korea, Japan and Italy due to the COVID-19 outbreak influenced the behavior of the App Store users and impacted Apple Search Ads. significant changes in Downloads and Cost per Acquisition 3. COVID-19 had a significant positive effect on (the usage of apps has increased by more than 160%), as well as and Education (where the usage of apps increased by up to 200-300%). Games Business 4. has seen the rise of stock investments, e-wallets and wire transfers. The number of Downloads has grown 2.5 times (by 150%) in the 2nd phase countries, while CPA in these countries has risen by approximately 35%. The Finance category The growth is mainly due to the US (in the 3rd phase countries) and Japanese (in the 2nd phase countries) Apple Search Ads storefronts. Along with the increased popularity of financial apps, publishers in this category began to allocate a bigger advertising budget for the US and JP storefronts. Meanwhile, the growth in Europe is insignificant, which is possibly caused by the financial industry regulations. 5. Publishers in who manage to make quick changes in their positioning will be able to win a large share of the market. the Fitness category For South Korea, Japan and Italy, the Downloads trend follows a U-curve: a sharp drop at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak is followed by a sharp increase from March 2020. This can be partially attributed to the lowered advertising budgets and moderate strategies that some advertisers have chosen. Other publishers have modified their positioning from regular fitness apps to home workout apps. We’ve also seen the popularity of mindfulness and meditation grow. 6. As opposed to text-based communication, visual communication keeps gaining momentum. When in isolation, users continue downloading , which is reflected in an increase in downloads by 80% in South Korea, Japan and Italy. Photo & Video apps The essence of the visual content has changed though: there are more cats, selfies, and vacation memories. 7. are experiencing a sharp decline in popularity. Additionally, publishers in these categories opt for a more moderate strategy and cut their Apple Search Ads budgets. The number of Downloads has fallen 3 times, and the bid has decreased by more than 2 times. Travel, Transportation and Booking Hopefully, our research on the impact of COVID-19 on Apple Search Ads will give you a better understanding of the industry changes. For more performance and cost benchmarks (TTR, CR, CPT and CPA), trends and tips, get our . Apple Search Ads Benchmarks Report 2020 Previously published at https://splitmetrics.com/blog/impact-of-covid19-on-apple-search-ads/

The Impact of COVID-19 on Apple Search Ads

"An Online Exhibition About Amsterdam in the Age of Corona: In the digital exhibition Corona in the City, the Amsterdam Museum – with many partners – shows the impact of the corona virus on the city of Amsterdam and its inhabitants. Hundreds of Amsterdammers and Amsterdam organisations share their photos, videos, texts and audio fragments about this period in this exhibition. From moving reports of distant visits to loved ones to still photographs of the empty city; from poignant messages from the vital sectors to creative imaginations of life in quarantine." The featured image above was submitted by Ruben Hanssen, who named it ' ', and described the night he took the photo: Breathtaking Silence "Curiosity drove me to the center this Friday evening. This is a place I usually avoid, the eternal stream of tourists and day trippers claim every square millimeter of the city at every conceivable hour. Suddenly, a silence has fallen in our city that is unparalleled." I can vouch for that. In a distinctly pre-Covid-19 2018 NPR piece entitled it's observed that while fewer than 1 million people actually in Amsterdam, the city expected to host close to tourists that year. ' In Amsterdam, Even The Tourists Say There Are Too Many Tourists ' , live 20 million Indeed: and (now woefully out-of-date) predictions point to what one might accuse of being an unnecessarily enormous industry: Statista's rounded-up numbers ( ) "Year-on-year, the tourism industry becomes more important for the Dutch economy. A total of approximately 78 billion euros 85 billion USD was spent by tourists in 2018 (excluding outbound and other expenditure). This is roughly twice as much when compared to 2010." On the ground, those numbers translate to unplayably crowded conditions in the center of this city—as anybody who's been here will know. So it's no surprise to see that much of the public work exhibited in Amsterdam Museum's new, crowdsourced online exhibition called ' ' is fixated on the sudden emptiness of the historical tourist traps that were—mere months ago—so crammed with long-lens camera-clad tourists that locals would rather have stuck pins in their eyes than go near them. Corona in the City submitted by Wouter Buijs ' The Dam on 5 april, 2020, 8PM ', submitted by Peter Schrijnders ' Dam, sunday afternoon ', submitted by Anuschka Spelbos. ' No dogs on the Dam! ' submitted by Vanja Dimitrova ' The King of Pigeons – Dam Square ' The innovative exhibition is based entirely on public submissions and also includes , , and . personal photos from healthcare workers people snapping daily polaroids in quarantine illustrated portraits of the many faces we've all seen in many, many Zoom screenshots Kim Marquardt. ' 11. “Humour” ' submitted by "We see a lot of sad and intense situations during this crisis, but fortunately we are strong as a team, and sometimes we are able to laugh and relax together." by Prins de Vos ' Quarantaine Polaroids ' by Kay van Bellen ' Zoom Portraits ' Check out the rest of the exhibition here. isn't the only organization using technology to keep arts-and-culture-appreciating communities engaged during these crazy times. Amsterdam Museum Cape Town's is hosting weekly "Head to Head" discussions on Instagram Live, led by senior curators and directors around the continent to address the urgencies, challenges, and opportunities impacting contemporary art organisations in Africa. Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa You can even enjoy a live African sunrise Safari from the comfort of your couch, if you so wish, nowadays—proving the case that absolutely all industries can (and probably should) introduce some form of remote work and/or revenue into their business models. Long may these innovations last! Which fun things have you started experiencing from home since we all stopped having any other choice? Let me know in the comments! 💃

Amsterdam's Online Corona Exhibition is a Crowdsourced Covid-19 Time Capsule 

Will you be content if you hire and pay four people but only three show up to actually do the work? And yet, many employers do just that. According to McKinsey, an average worker spends 1.8 hours daily gathering and aggregating data, a task that is redundant and doesn’t have a direct impact on business success, and, above all, can be easily automated. Is your insurance company looking for ways to relieve your employees from this routine burden while cutting costs and minimizing errors? If so, you can consult a to build or customize an RPA solution specific to your needs. robotic process automation company But before that, where can you use RPA in insurance? And how to prepare for its implementation — either in specific processes or company wide? What is RPA, and how can it serve the insurance sector? In the insurance industry, robotic process automation (RPA) refers to rule-based software bots that can perform repetitive manual tasks, such as extracting claims data, aggregating client information from various internal and external sources, and performing background checks. If we look at the statistics of RPA implementation, the insurance sector, along with retail, are the main beneficiaries of this technology. With this popularity, Juniper Research predicts that almost a half of the insurance sector . And McKinsey believes that those who have already adopted the technology will be able to by 2025. will invest in RPA by 2024 automate 25% of their manual processes Deploying RPA in the insurance sector brings about the following benefits: . RPA can serve as a bridge between modern software, such as an ERP solution, and the existing legacy programs and devices that are still important for business. Sometimes deploying RPA in insurance can replace legacy systems altogether. For instance, a North American insurer Security Benefit in one year by automating legacy processes. Facilitates integration with legacy systems saved 40,000 labor hours . There are many real-life examples of when adopting RPA in insurance took the excessive load off employees’ backs and gave them more time for higher-value tasks. For instance, Encova Insurance saved its workers by automating their customer retention process, while Australian Unity of manual labor over the course of eight months thanks to RPA. Reduces manual work 25 hours a week spared its employees 22,493 hours . When employees are not overwhelmed with tedious routine tasks, their job satisfaction increases. A large insurance group based in Hong Kong used to delegate routine clerical work to junior staff, who made mistakes resulting in high employee turnover. The company after automating 80% of these processes. Lowers attrition rates reported lower attrition rates . Deploying RPA in insurance does require initial investment, but it helps companies to save money in the long run. For instance, a global insurance provider after deploying just 13 RPA robots. Cuts costs saved £140,000 in six months Top 7 robotic process automation insurance use cases Underwriting Underwriters must analyze information from numerous sources to assess risks and find the best rates and policy options for their clients. In the life insurance niche, for instance, this task can take up to four weeks. Underwriters of their time on data gathering and entry. spend on average 40% Bots can aggregate and process data from internal and external sites and display it on a dashboard for faster and more convenient decision making. According to McKinsey, using RPA in insurance can . Moreover, enhanced with AI, bots can perform the following tasks: reduce data processing time by 34% Populate corresponding fields in the internal system Analyze clients’ claim history and suggest pricing Verify if the person already has an existing policy Assess loss runs Identify health risks, such as checking if the person smokes Extract the client’s credit rating from third-party resources, such as Experian When RPA takes over the trivial tasks, human underwriters can focus their efforts to streamline more complex cases. A Tier 1 US insurer from different policy systems and provide underwriters with a 360-degree of the client and their risks. Prior to this collaboration, underwriters wasted a lot of time to perform this task manually. And now they could use this time to better serve the customer. turned to Accenture to automate data extraction Business process improvement The insurance sector is full of paper-intensive processes, which makes it challenging to assess operational efficiency and identify areas for improvement. When automation bots take over, it becomes possible to track their workflow and record each step. Afterwards, during audits, companies can review the logs and measure parameters, such as processing speed and the number of manual interventions required, to identify candidates for process optimization. Even by simply automating a process, the efficiency increases in terms of speed and error rate. To achieve this, many organizations are incorporating insurance RPA into their workflow. Cattolica Assicurazioni, an Italian insurance firm, turned to UiPath to automate their processes. They investigated the process of financial reconciliation and found that it contained very few exceptions and could be almost fully digitized. They deployed RPA bots to perform tedious tasks, such as matching 20.000 lines of numbers. The financial department allocated six months to complete this project. With RPA automating 90% of the process, the company with a zero error rate. accomplished this task in merely two months Claims management and fraud detection McKinsey reports that automation . reduce the amount of manual work by 80% As you can see from the stats, this is a major robotic process automation insurance use case. When claim registration is done manually, it results in errors, slow service, and unpleasant customer experience. Incorporating RPA in insurance can streamline the whole process from First Notice of Loss (FNOL) to settlement: Integrate claims data from multiple sources, such as medical records for RPA in health insurance, photos of damaged vehicles, etc. Process scanned paper claims by classifying them and entering into the system correctly Assist in claims verification and sport fraudulent claims Identify any missing information and bring this issue to the responsible officer’s attention The Canadian claims management provider SCM Insurance Services fully automated data entry for FNOL, which allowed claims . And a large US property and casualty insurer, EXL, worker compensation claim handling time by 60% within the first four months of deploying RPA in insurance claims processing. to be completed 80% faster could decrease Policy administration and cancellation Even though current software packages for policy administration save employees a lot of labor, they still include complex navigations through multiple applications, causing inefficiency and opening room for error. Insurance robotic process automation solutions, backed by and natural language processing, can receive emails from policy holders, extract data, make the required changes, such as bank mandate and address alteration, and send confirmations. The technology can handle policy rating, issuing, endorsing, renewing, and cancellation, among other tasks. machine learning Zurich Insurance Group built by Capgemini based on BluePrism software. It involves RPA robots early in policy handling as they enter policy details into the system, issue invoices, and draft policy documents that officers can review. Both Zurich clients and the insurer benefit greatly from this approach. Raffaele Nutricati, Head of Robotic Process Automation at Zurich Commercial Insurance, said, deployed an automation solution “Not only are they receiving policies of higher quality than those processed in the traditional manner, there is a significant decrease in the number of emails and phone calls to clarify information with our support desk.” Regulatory compliance The insurance sector relies on several compliance standards, such as tax law and HIPAA privacy rules, to guide documentation and processes. Officers are expected to monitor and act upon any changes in regulations. They need to align claim types with the corresponding jurisdiction as fast as possible, risking a regulatory breach. Automation bots can take over this responsibility by monitoring regulations, validating customer data accordingly, keeping a log of changes, and generating regulatory reports. For example, one popular compliance use case is Name Screening Alert Review for Sanctions on politically exposed persons (PEP). Screening systems can generate thousands of alerts every day, and it would be exhausting to verify any false positives manually. RPA in insurance can pre-process these alerts, significantly limiting the number of false positives remaining for manual verification. Customer service As we established above, deploying RPA in insurance speeds up client-facing services and almost eliminates error rates, resulting in a better customer experience. With the abundance of insurance companies, clients always have an option to leave one provider for another. According to Deloitte’s survey, after experiencing poor customer service. 41% of respondents have left their insurer Moreover, automation enables companies to perform advanced analytics to gain a better understanding of customer expectations and provide personalized offerings. For example, a client has posted on social media about his upcoming trip. An RPA assistant takes notice of this information, and when the client contacts an insurance agent about, let’s say, home insurance, the smart assistant will notify the agent about the vacation, enabling the agent to produce a customized offer covering all of the client’s needs. Such an approach will give you a competitive advantage as about the lack of personalization in insurance products. 88% of clients complain Query processing The insurance sector receives large volumes of broker and customer queries that demand fast resolution. Manual query processing can be error prone and exhausting for employees, while deploying RPA insurance bots will guarantee faster and more accurate results. Hollard Group managed to facilitate broker communication through . As a result, they reduced execution time by 600%, saving 2,000 hours of employee time per month. automating 98% of email handling processes The path to successful adoption of robotic process automation in insurance Here are the five steps that you can take to prepare yourself and your company for the upcoming automation project: . Opt for processes that are well-structured, rule-based, and don’t have many exceptions. It is also a good practice to choose frequently used processes as they will amplify the benefits and speed up return on investment. According to Gartner, the should not include more than 20 steps or involve over three applications. Identify candidate processes for automation ideal RPA candidate . Analyze the process first and eliminate any unessential steps. Also, even though every employee performs the task differently, come up with a standardized process version for automation. Optimize processes before automation . This will help people appreciate RPA benefits, give improvement suggestions, and will make them generally motivated to use the new system. Involve your employees from the beginning . There are four well-established RPA vendors, namely , , , and . Select your RPA platform UiPath Blue Prism Automation Anywhere WorkFusion . Most likely, you will still need to customize your preferred RPA solution to cover all your needs and fit into your workflows. An experienced robotic process automation company will ensure a seamless integration. Find a vendor who will help you incorporate the selected RPA insurance tools into your existing system You can learn more about in our recent article. RPA adoption challenges and how to overcome them What’s next for RPA in insurance? Deploying robotic process automation in the insurance industry can speed up operations, bring down expenses, and increase customer satisfaction. But this is just the beginning of the road towards intelligent process automation (IPA), which will empower RPA bots to take over tasks typically reserved for humans. With the help of cognitive technologies, such as , , and , RPA can maximize its contribution across the insurance value chain. AI emotion recognition optical character recognition You can learn more about intelligent automation from our recent article that . We also composed a comprehensive guide on and . Finally, you can discover more on by visiting our blog. compares IPA to RPA how to start with enterprise automation how much it will cost to implement an RPA solution RPA in finance Want to increase efficiency and cut costs by automating some of your manual insurance processes? ! Our RPA experts will help you select the right automation platform and will customize the solution to cover your unique needs. Drop us a line

PHOTON HEALTH

photon.health

-- employees

Since n.d.

COMPANY RANKING

PHOTON HEALTH

EVERGREEN INDEX #8199

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Photon Health WIKI

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PHOTON HEALTH

photon.health

-- employees

Since n.d.

COMPANY RANKING

PHOTON HEALTH

EVERGREEN INDEX #8199

RELATED COMPANIESRANK

STORIES ABOUT PHOTON HEALTH

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