Technology and media communications – Page 5 – Swanson Reed

“Not alone” – Cariloop uses tech to support families during tough times

Imagine you get a call one day that changes everything: your parent or grandparent is sick and will need ongoing treatment. Suddenly, you are thrust into the role of caregiver for a loved one who once cared for you. This can be a challenging experience and it is natural to feel overwhelmed and stressed. The creators behind Cariloop understand this struggle that many families across America experience and so they launched a platform to offer support to caregivers. Their promise: “No one should EVER go through the process of caring for a loved one alone.”

Founder Steven Theesfeld started the company with co-founder and current CEO Michael Walsh in 2011 in Dallas. Together, they built a support platform that helps caregivers plan and manage care for their loved ones. Cariloop users have on-demand access to a healthcare coach who is a licensed or certified healthcare professional. The healthcare coach can guide families as they make important decisions. Walsh explained in an interview, “We see it happen every day – some sort of health or medical event takes place and suddenly the entire family is scrambling to figure out what to do, how to do it, how much it costs, which options are best, on and on.”Cariloop also provides a platform where families could safely and securely communicate and store important documents like medical records, insurance cards, and other paperwork across mobile devices and desktops, similar to Slack. He said, “Rather than Googling their way through their loved one’s challenges, we’d love to showcase how our platform can save them a significant amount of time, money, and stress along their journey.”

Cariloop partners with corporate employers in delivering its services. Walsh explained the shift to working with companies from working with healthcare providers came when they noticed that most users accessed Cariloop during work hours, namely 10 am to 2 pm. As a result, Cariloop repositioned itself as an employee benefit in 2015. In doing so, Cariloop hopes to assist companies in promoting wellness among employees, especially during difficult, life-changing times.

Are you experimenting with online platforms to deliver support and healthcare like Cariloop? You could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and receive up to 14% back on your expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE credits as well as CPE credits for CPA’s. For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.

Virtual Reality Ain’t Just for Kids – Dallas Startup MyndVR brings the virtual world to our country’s oldest citizens

Residents at senior homes face a wide range of challenges on a daily basis. Seniors are especially vulnerable to isolation which can lead to depression and anxiety. The Dallas startup MyndVR aims to help offset these challenges by promoting health and wellness using an unlikely source: Virtual Reality (VR).

Founded in 2016, MyndVR was the brainchild of Chris Brickler and Shawn Wiora. Brickler is a former Hollywood producer, Silicon Valley technologist, and entrepreneur while Wiora worked for years in executive senior care. With their combined expertise, the two designed a personalized Virtual Reality experience with seniors and their unique needs in mind.

In collaboration with the University of Texas at Dallas and Samsung, MyndVR offers a handsfree VR headset using gaze-based navigation. This means users can simply pick content with just a look instead of a button or a joystick since clicking is often difficult for the elderly. Similar to music therapy which was found to have positive effects on mood, the multi-sensory experience of Virtual Reality has a significant impact on seniors’ wellbeing. Dementia and Alzheimer’s patients in particular benefited from VR use. It is common for these patients to take mood-altering medication to manage their condition but this often causes patients to feel withdrawn and unengaged. With the VR handset, in contrast, patients’ moods were markedly boosted without the need for medication. Brian Barnes, the CFO/COO of The Legacy Senior Communities, recalled, “In one case, a resident living with Alzheimer’s exhibited personality traits she had prior to the diagnosis, including dancing, smiling and singing.”

For Brickler, giving seniors a sense of choice in the VR experience was important. He said, “We wanted to create a sense of empowerment with seniors around their choice of content and personal journeys.” These journeys include but are not limited to swimming with dolphins, attending a 1950s-style speakeasy jazz club, and taking a nostalgic trip to Paris. Dr. Ryan McMahan of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science explained that there are three ideas behind the VR experiences, “Either they’ll see something they’ve experienced before, which could bring about memories; experience a place they’ve never seen before, which engages the brain; or experience something that’s completely impossible — the unique domain of virtual reality.” Brickler hopes that one day, MyndVR will produce prescriptive digital therapy to provide content based on the user’s diagnosis.

MyndVR conducted trials this past year in Kansas, Florida, California, and Texas with nearly 300 seniors from ages 70 to 100. The startup hopes a mass launch of its product in 2018. It is also partnering with the Center for Brain Health at The University of Texas at Dallas to maintain ongoing research of the effects of the technology on their users’ brains.

Brickler stated, “The elderly population still have minds that function and still have curiosity. They may not be as sharp as younger people, but at the end of the day, there’s a thirst for knowledge, recreation and therapy, and we think virtual reality might be part of the solution.”

MyndVR in partnership with the University of Texas demonstrates how R&D is changing the world for the better. Are you also doing engaging in R&D experiments to tailor technology to senior populations? Did you know that If you conduct your R&D projects in universities, you could receive up to an additional 20% credit for your expenses? To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Dallas Technology Virtual Reality

Dallas-based AT&T collaborates in Project Loon effort to reconnect Puerto Rico back to the communication grid

After Hurricane Maria, 95 percent of Puerto Rico’s cell towers were wiped out, leaving the island without access to communication with the outside world. In an effort to reconnect Puerto Rico, Dallas-based AT&T is working with Google’s parent company Alphabet’s X division as well as Apple to introduce a provisional band of LTE.

The initiative incorporates Alphabet X’s Project Loon, a fleet of balloons that serve as cell phone towers in the sky. First developed in 2013, the technology relies on solar energy and can stay afloat for more than three months. The balloons were initially vulnerable to wind but Alphabet X recently developed ways to move the balloons into the desired places. The purpose of the balloons is to allow those living in remote and rural areas to have internet access, and in the wake of Hurricane Maria, to reconnect Puerto Rico.

However, the balloons extend an existing cellular network, and do not create an independent one. As a result, Alphabet X needed a cellular provider to partner with Project Loon. Dallas-based AT&T which provides service on the island agreed to work with Alphabet X. AT&T said, “We’re using both traditional and innovative technologies, and are collaborating with humanitarian groups, local and federal governments, and organizations like Project Loon who are bringing additional resources to Puerto Rico to assist in the recovery efforts.” Apple is also working with Project Loon to connect iPhone users on the island.

Because of these joint efforts, AT&T announced it was able to reconnect more than 60 percent of people in Puerto Rico and 90 percent of those in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Those numbers are likely to grow.

Are you working on innovative ways to extend internet service and provide access during emergencies like Project Loon’s efforts to reconnect Puerto Rico? You may be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and can receive up to 14% on your expenses, even if your experiments were not successful. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

AT&T Dallas r&d Technology

“Data is the New Oil” – Dallas Entrepreneur Develops Brainspace to Sift Through All that Information You Don’t Have Time For

Imagine trying to make sense of millions of emails, text messages, slideshows, and company reports. Sound daunting? That’s what Dallas-born and bred entrepreneur Dave Copps thought. His solution was Brainspace, a new software that does the grunt work of sifting through heaps of information.

With a processing and analyzing speed of about 1 million documents in 45 minutes, Brainspace gathers unstructured information like human language and converts it into a visual representation that makes sense for users and helps them identify patterns. It allows companies to better understand the frequently scattered conversations going on within the organization and to protect those conversations from unwanted hackers. It has also proved useful in lengthy legal investigations and counter-terrorism intelligence. Used by consulting firms, intelligence agencies, and Fortune 500 companies, Brainspace is transforming the way companies share and analyze information.

During its development stages, it was technically challenging to teach the software to understand human language, especially since humans typically use jargon, puns, and speak sarcastically. To bypass this problem which affects other language systems, Brainspace does not isolate words and meanings. Rather, it gathers information on how that word is used in relation to other words and determines meaning from that context. In one instance, many employees had misspelled “manager” as “manger”. Eventually, Brainspace was able to learn that “manger” meant “manager” because of the context surrounding the word’s use. This technique is useful in finding information that some people try to conceal by using code names. Copps said, “If someone is doing something wrong inside a company and trying to get away with something, they never speak explicitly about what they’re doing wrong. They try to use code names. There’s no history. But it doesn’t matter for us. We see that made-up word, that new word, that slang and we start to associate it with all the words around it and all these different instances where it occurred. Then, we can very quickly tell you what it is.”

This ability to extract information behind concealed meaning is a gamechanger in the counterterrorism field. Copps explained, “It’s really the same problem, but a different data set: How do you take information that you collect about bad guys and find out who they are and what you can do about it to thwart it? Of all the things we’re doing, that’s the one that has me most excited: knowing we can help prevent terrorism.”

Brainspace was absorbed into Cyxtera, a cybersecurity, data center company earlier this year. Cyxtera developed a new version of Brainspace software this year, allowing it to learn over 300 languages including Mandarin and Farsi. Innovation for Brainspace doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. Copps said, “Data is really the new oil. If you have information, that’s one thing. But if you have information and can understand it and be able to do things with it, that’s a competitive advantage over anyone else.”

Experimenting with software and codes to make sense of unstructured information like Brainspace? You could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and can get up to 14% on your R&D expenses, even if your experiments were not successful. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Cybersecurity Dallas r&d

Emergency drones used in search of missing toddler in North Texas

The search continues for Sherin Mathews, a 3-year-old toddler who has been missing from her home in Richardson, Texas since October 7. Emergency drones were deployed yesterday as the latest surveillance measure in hopes of finding the missing girl.

According to the International Business Times, Sherin’s father Wesley Mathews had allegedly left his daughter outside at 3 am as a form of punishment for not drinking her milk. When he returned 15 minutes later, she had disappeared. Police said that though coyotes are often seen in the area, there is little evidence that Sherin was mauled by a bear. Kidnapping also appears unlikely.

Police and volunteers have been searching in fields, creeks, and wooded areas for the missing girl. Locating missing persons is very arduous but every second counts. An officer said, “We’re always hopeful that we can find her alive. But time is our enemy.” Aerial surveillance can offer these extra precious seconds. The North Texas Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Response Team are using emergency drones to search for Sherin. Jamie Moore, Emergency Management Director of Johnson County, stated, “It gives you a much better perspective of what the terrain looks like, what the ground looks like. You can see car tracks for example that might have driven through dirt. You can see where dirt may have been disturbed, and you can see articles of clothing.” While the police cannot disclose all the details, Moore is hopeful the scouting efforts of the emergency drones has provided important information for finding Sherin.

Smaller police departments short on manpower and resources are quickly resorting to investing in drone technology. Compared to helicopters, emergency drones offer air surveillance at a fraction of the cost of an actual aircraft and they can reach areas that aircrafts usually cannot. This week’s search is not the first time drones have been used in police investigations. Emergency drones have been deployed in North Texas since 2015. Earlier this year in March, drones was used in Dallas for the search of 38-year-old Matthew Meinert whose body was found a couple days later. Drones have also been used to hunt down criminals and to scope out critical situations like fires.

Drones are expected to become commonplace in police investigations, especially as the technology advances. “If you can save a life because you were able to locate somebody very quickly, a matter of minutes as opposed to a matter of hours, that’s worth investing in,” said Moore.

Are you developing life-saving emergency drones and aerial surveillance technology through R&D? You could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and can receive up to 14% on your expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Who We Are:

Swanson Reed is Texas’ largest Specialist R&D tax advisory firm, offering tax credibility assessments, claim preparation, and advisory services. We manage all facets of the R&D tax credit program in Texas, from claim prep & audit compliance to claim disputes.

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE and CPE credits for CPA’s. For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative

Drones emergency r&d Texas

18 billionaires from Dallas-Fort Worth make Forbes’ 400 Richest Americans List in 2017

Forbes released its annual 400 Richest Americans list on Tuesday, October 17 and the verdict is in: 18 of the 34 Texans who made the cut call Dallas-Fort Worth “home”.

The richest Texan is Alice Walton, 68, the Walmart heiress who resides in Dallas-Fort Worth and whose estimated net worth is at $38.2 billion. She ranks No. 13 on the Forbes 400. She is an active curator of art, serving as Chairman of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas and having supported the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.

Texas’ economy is diverse but its main sources of wealth are oil, gas, and pipelines. The Forbes 400 reflected this with Robert Bass, Ray Lee Hunt, Trevor Rees-Jones, and Sid Bass among DFW residents in the Top 400 whose fortunes were built on oil. Others like Andrew Beal and H. Ross Perot Senior and Junior made their wealth through real estate. Sports also played a role, with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, worth an estimated $5.6 billion, rounding out the top three richest Texans and No. 95 in the country. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has an estimated $3.3 billion, making him the 21^st richest Texan. Cuban is also an investor on the television show, “Shark Tank.”

Bill Gates remains the richest American, with $89 billion. Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, claimed the No.2 spot with $81.5 billion, replacing Warren Buffett who previously held title for fifteen years and now sits at No. 3 with $78 billion. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg rounded the top four Richest Americans with a net worth of $71 billion.

2017 has proven a successful year for the country’s wealthiest Americans. Forbes’ 400 criteria jumped from 2016’s $1.7 billion net worth threshold to $2 billion. The Forbes 400’s total net worth is $2.7 trillion compared to last year’s $2.4 trillion.

Despite the minimum increase, 22 newcomers made the Forbes 400 list with 14 of them being self-made entrepreneurs. Notable innovators include Don Vultaggio, founder of Arizona ice tea and Tito Beveridge who created Tito’s Handmade Vodka. Netflix founder Reed Hastings also notably landed a spot on the Forbes 400 with an estimated $2.2 billion.

Are you an aspiring entrepreneur in Dallas-Fort Worth engaging in R&D to develop new products and maybe one day make the Forbes 400 Richest Americans List? You could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and can receive up to 14% on your expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Who We Are:

Business Fort Worth Oil and gas industry r&d Technology

On the road in Texas and need a bathroom? Buc-ee’s High-Tech Tooshlights Got You Covered

If you’ve ever driven along the North Freeway on the way to Fort Worth, you’ve probably stopped by Buc-ee’s, the famous roadside store with its quirky finds, tasty Beaver Bites, and world-renowned bathrooms. Now, the company is adding an even “smarter” upgrade: high-tech bathrooms with Tooshlights.

Jeff Nadalo, Buc-ee’s general counsel, announced that by next year, the company’s 33 stores across Texas will have a whole new system of high-tech bathrooms developed by Tooshlights, a Los Angeles startup. Providing relief for the tired traveler, Buc-ee’s bathrooms are known for their pristine cleanliness and spaciousness as well as its iconic Texas décor. Nadalo has emphasized that clean restrooms are truly “one of the most important pieces of our customer experience.”

With the new Tooshlights technology, Buc-ee’s will take the bathroom experience one step further. Tooshlights was founded in 2013 by Allen Klevens who came up with the idea while he was waiting for a bathroom stall at the Hollywood Bowl. Finding the wait time incredibly long and wearisome, Klevens came up with a system to manage bathroom traffic. Each stall in the Tooshlights system is equipped with a “smart latch” that connects to a colored light above each stall. These ceiling lights indicate whether a particular stall is occupied or vacant. Green indicates unlocked and empty while red signifies locked and in use. There is also a blue light for handicapped-accessible stalls. You don’t need to awkwardly knock on bathroom stalls anymore. Additionally, the Tooshlights software can monitor cleanliness of stalls and send notifications to staff about when it is time to clean a bathroom stall. It can also monitor when a stall has not been occupied in awhile and one that would require further attention.

Tooshlights’ ground-breaking approach to improving bathroom traffic makes it a perfect fit with Buc-ee’s reputation as a provider of extremely immaculate toilets. As one of Buc-ee’s billboards declares, “Your Throne Awaits. Fabulous Restrooms – 32 miles.” Who knows what new innovations are in store for Buc-ee’s next year?

Experimenting with high-tech ways to manage bathroom traffic like Tooshlights and Buc-ee’s? You could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and receive up to 14% back on your expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

Who We Are:

Fort Worth Technology texas r&d

20 years later, AOL Instant Messenger’s retirement is a testament to advancement in R&D

In the not-so-distant past, before direct messaging, texting, and smartphones, before Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Skype, before the boom of Twitter and Facebook, only one online communication method reigned supreme: AOL Instant Messenger. Known as “AIM” for short, the AOL messenger, along with its counterparts by Microsoft and Yahoo, changed the way people interacted with each other online.

AIM first appeared on the scene in 1997 and, by 2001, it had over 100 million users. While Yahoo and MSN messengers were widely used outside of the United State, AIM was the most popular instant messenger among Americans. The messenger’s trademark “buddy list”, screen names, and immediate, simultaneous access to multiple friends changed communication during a time when most people talked to each other over the phone. Now twenty years since its launch, AIM will officially retire by December 15, 2017. Oath, the company behind AOL, announced the news last week. Michael Albers, Head of Communications, stated, “AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed.”

The messenger had sparked new user behaviours that are now common practice in contemporary social media. Before Facebook statuses, there were AIM’s “Away Messages” which allowed users to creatively update their friends of their whereabouts. Before adding “friends” on Facebook, there was asking for people’s screennames. AIM profile stalking was a precursor to Facebook profile stalking.

While no one has used the messenger in years, nostalgia has burst across the internet reminiscing how the now-obsolete technology was once transformative. Adam Lashinsky wrote in Fortune, “At the risk of oversharing, it is no understatement to say I began dating my wife on AIM. She worked at AOL when I joined TheStreet.com, and she was on AIM as much as I was. I remember early instant messaging chats far more than phone chats.” In The Guardian, Matthew Cantor recalled, “For me, as a 14-year-old, AIM was a revelation. Here was a way I could communicate with my peers – including those who were objectively cooler than me – without stammering or panicking…That’s because, behind the wall of the computer screen, we had the time and distance to craft much wittier banter.”

AIM’s retirement demonstrates how times have changed. The instant messaging era has since been replaced by smartphones and apps. Nevertheless, the technical innovation that sparked AIM and contributed to its decline will continue. Lashinsky poignantly stated, “Like many consumer technologies that went before it, AIM ushered in a revolution that quickly left it behind. I can’t say I’ll miss it. But I sure am glad it existed.”

The rise and fall of AOL demonstrates the advancement and innovation of R&D in the communication technology sector. If you are developing software and programs building on AOL Messenger’s legacy, your R&D activities may be eligible for the R&D tax credit and you could receive up to 14% on your research and development expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

research and development Smartphone Technology

Ericsson chooses Austin as site of new design center for city’s “bustling tech and start up scene”

When deciding where to open its next 5G design center, the Swedish telecommunications juggernaut Ericsson knew that Austin was the right choice.

With its highly skilled talent and growing reputation as a leader in the start-up tech industry, Austin has attracted many processor manufacturing companies and now Ericsson is joining the neighborhood. Many of Ericsson’s partners and suppliers are also based to Austin, making the city an obvious choice instead of California’s Silicon Valley. In an interview with Fierce Wireless, Sinisa Krajnovic, Head of Development Unit Networks at Ericsson, said, “We did analysis across the whole world. We had considered several places seriously and our choice was Austin for this.” Similarly, “Austin is one of the fastest-growing cities in the US with a bustling tech and start-up scene,” Niklas Heuveldop, Head of Ericsson North America, told Business Insider. “We want to capture the great talent on-hand there, enabling us to increase digital ASIC capabilities even further and be close to some of our key global customers.”

Ericsson’s new design center in Austin will focus on testing and developing the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a microelectronics processor. Intended for cell phones and mobile devices, these are 100 times faster and more cost and power efficient than the average personal computer processor. Located in Austin’s tech neighborhood, the new design center will collaborate with nearby silicon manufacturing plants to design solutions and prepare for the commercialization of the 5G network. Joining the company’s teams in Sweden and China, the Austin design center is part of Ericsson’s global strategy to develop “faster, better, and greener 5G products to bring into the Ericsson portfolio by 2019,” said Krajnovic. The 5G design center in Austin is expected to be up and running by the end of this year. It is currently recruiting designers and developers.

Ericsson’s expenses from R&D experiments conducted in Austin are eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and the company could receive up to 14% in return. If you are also conducting R&D testing to develop and manufacture processors, you could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit. Contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

R&D tax credit Research Technology Texas

Swipe Right for Your Next Career Move: Austin-based Bumble launches Professional Networking App

When dating app Bumble first launched on the tech scene in 2014, it revolutionized online dating with its “women make the first move” approach. Now four years later with 20 million users worldwide, 800 million matches and counting, the Austin-based company is set to change the online professional scene with its new networking app, Bumble Bizz. The networking app was released on the Apple App store earlier this week in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, and Germany.

Built into Bumble’s original app and drawing on its features, Bumble Bizz would connect users based on geographic location and users can swipe left or right to indicate whether they want to connect for mentoring or networking. Swiping right means interested to connect while left signifies disinterest. Users are matched when both swipe right. They then have 24 hours to connect or else the connection disappears. Unlike Bumble which only features an image and short biography, the networking app would also include a digital resume highlighting skills and past work experience.

Bumble CEO and founder Whitney Wolfe Herd explained the company developed Bumble Bizz because many Bumble users were already using the app for professional connections in addition to romantic ones. Like its original app, Bumble Bizz sets the stage for women to initiate contact. Herd said, “We’ve stayed focused on creating a community with a foundation built upon positivity, respect, confidence, and encouraging women to make the first move.” The company’s head of brand Alex Williamson further added that Bumble Bizz was to create a “safe space for women to network”, given the higher risk of harassment for women in the professional sphere.

In response to media calling Bumble Bizz the potential “LinkedIn killer”, Herd has emphasized that the networking app functions differently from LinkedIn’s platform. For one, Bumble Bizz is more informal and casual compared to LinkedIn. The 24-hour time limit to make a connection, moreover, creates a sense of urgency instead of accumulating connections that are “dead” over time and not actively cultivated. Herd said, “We’re trying to give you access to people right here, right now around you, hyper-relevant to you, and create real-life connections.”

The networking app has launched on Apple. It will be available on Google Play on October 18. By the way, Bumble will be using its networking app to look for potential employees at its Austin office. If you’re interested, get started on Bumble Bizz today.

Building networking apps and changing the way we interact online? You could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and can receive up to 14% back on your research and development expenses. To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today.

research and development Smartphone Texas