3 . Like bootcut jeans or farm fresh produce,television is proving its staying power regardless of trends. It seems to be just like a home cooked meal,never to be replaced,thanks to the wide application of big data.

Americans are still watching an average of five hours of TV each day and over 50%of homes have a television subscription service like Netflix or Hulu.This is due to the fact that television programming has undergone a renaissance(复兴),with cinema-quality programs on broadcast,new ways of delivery-Netflix or Hulu and other over-the-top(OTT)providers and now the promise of data-driven insights for advertisers. Data is the key to television's profitability.Advertisers have access to more audience information than ever,while networks and content providers use data,in addition to instinct(本能)to guide programming decisions.The abundance of data available to content providers,marketers and advertisers makes it possible to process,analyse and transform big data into profitable,useful insights.

For those 50% of homes with a subscription service,OTT TV is using data to make decisions not just about programming,but to guide viewers to the right content.The most famous example of data-driven content is Netflix's House of Cards,a popular TV series in America,designed to be a hit based on platform data like user viewing habits,ratings and preferences.But the content provider uses data to guide all of its decisions,ranging from title images to homepage layouts.

Netflix receives data from millions of set top boxes and online accounts,and then processes data using real time technology like Spark.These data have led to clearly-seen results,like a 20%-30%increase in programs'viewship numbers.

4 . Tired of dealing with those slow, dumb, and unfriendly hotel staff? How about a hotel that provides chance for minimal interaction with the" people" running the hotel? In the Henn Na Hotel in Japan, there aren’t any!

Being called “Weird Hotel” by locals, the Henn Na Hotel opened in 2016 in the town of Sasebo, is staffed almost by robots. The robots are not just for fun. They do a large amount of work, saving time and money as well. They can greet you when you enter. Also, they play music in the lounge, inform you of the breakfast menu, and control the lights in your hotel room, etc.

Thinking that the hotel should be unique and appealing, the owners made each robot different from each other with a variety of shapes and sizes. One of the robots behind the front desk is designed to look like a dinosaur, “If you want to check in, push one.” the dinosaur says. Then the guest can type the information on a touch panel screen. Inside the room, there’s a small robot called Tuly in the shape of a pink tulip (郁金香). Tuly can answer simple questions like "what time is it?" and "What will the weather be like tomorrow?" With no switches on the wall, Tuly can also turn the room lights on or off if it's told to.

But how do things like check-in and room access work? Well, the screen at the reception captures and registers a digital image of the guest's face during check-in which is used to get access 10 rooms instead of traditional keys. However. the reception shall also provide you card keys on request in case you wish to keep it subtle!

If you're wondering what happens in the case of an emergency, you need not worry. Humans do step in when it's of great importance. According to the hotels website, there are a few human staff members who are available on-call 24X7 and help guests in the case of an emergency.

5 . Microsoft has developed a new smartphone app that interprets eye signals and translates them into letters, allowing people with motor neuron（运动神经元）disease to communicate with others from a phone.

The GazeSpeak app combines a smartphone’s camera with artificial intelligence to recognize eye movements in real time and change them into letters, words and sentences.

For people suffering from ALS（渐冻症）, also known as motor neuron disease, eye movement can be the only way they are able to communicate.

“Current eye-tracking input systems for people with ALS or other motor problems are expensive, not strong under sunlight, and require frequent re-calibration(校对) and abundant, relatively immobile setups,” said Xiaoyi Zhang, a researcher at Microsoft who developed the technology. “To change the situation…we created GazeSpeak, an eye-gesture communication system that runs on a smartphone.”

The app is used by the listener by pointing their smartphone at the speaker. A chart that can be stuck to the back of the smartphone is then used by the speaker to determine which eye movements to make in order to communicate.

The sticker shows four grids(格) of letters, which each match a different eye movement. By looking up, down, left or right, the speaker selects which grids the letters they want belong to. The artificial intelligence algorithm is then able to predict the word or sentence they are trying to say.

A．	B．
C．	D．