Developed in partnership with Perkins School for the Blind’s Howe Innovation Center, the new app offers real-time scenic audio descriptions and narration of the world outside the car window.

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Using a combination of computer vision, generative AI, satellite imaging, and a multitude of other technologies and sources, including geo-targeting and weather reports, the Honda Scenic Audio app creates meticulous details of the drive and offers scenic narrative of what is taking place outside of the car window, going beyond the basics of dictating the scenery.

According to the car manufacturer, the Honda Scenic Audio was launched to create multifaceted narratives with a literary tone and expressive descriptions with nuanced adjectives, recognisable sounds, comparisons of heights and terrain and even the temperature outside.

Honda Senior Manager, Phil Hruska, said: “At Honda, through The Power of Dreams we apply our original technologies and ideas to realise mobility that enables our customers to enjoy life with more freedom, more convenience and more fun.

“By creating a detailed narrative of the roadside views during a scenic driving experience, the Honda Scenic Audio app can help to open imaginations and enhance the joy of car travel to blind and visually impaired passengers.”

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The Dream Generator allows for families to create their own magical adventure in the new all-electric Prologue SUV by combining user-provided inputs with AI-generated visuals to create a custom and shareable animated film.

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By simply asking customers a few questions, the Dream Generator then generates a custom, creative film featuring the Prologue SUV.

The “create-your-own-adventure” style experience is produced using AI-generated animation developed by 1stAveMachine using traditional hand-drawn animation cels.

Meanwhile, the platform also offers customers the option for the platform to create a film for them.

Honda Marketing, Senior Manager, Phil Hruska, said: “The launch of the all-new, all-electric Honda Prologue is a pivotal moment for the brand, and we wanted our customers to enjoy an innovative and engaging campaign befitting Honda’s first zero-emissions SUV.

“We’re utilising the creative prowess of Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab to give shoppers and families a fun opportunity to bring their dreams and imagination to life with the Honda Dream Generator.”

The Honda Dream Generator is part an integrated launch marketing campaign 2024 Prologue, which includes the new “Next Gen Dreamers” TV spot, with the full campaign rolling out this year.

Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab, Director, Kate McCagg, said: “The Honda Dream Generator launch exemplifies creative collaboration, producing an innovative AI-driven experience for customers.

“Honda’s willingness to roll up their sleeves with us on such a cutting-edge creative journey is nothing short of incredible and we’re so excited for customers to experience it.”

The Honda Dream Generator will expand to more Amazon devices in the future, the company revealed, including voice-activation with Amazon Alexa via a custom branded experience on Echo Show devices.

READ MORE:  Q&A: Amazon Ads MD Phil Christer on navigating the ‘complex’ modern customer purchase journey

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The Houndify platform will provide the basis for Honda’s voice AI and will provide the automaker with the ‘speed, accuracy, and intelligence in voice recognition and understanding’ needed to bring a voice assistant to vehicles.

Houndify uses a ‘Collective AI’ architecture which enables partners to have to complete control over the user experience and customise the platform as they see fit. Hyundai and Kia are two of the other automakers utilising SoundHound’s tech.

“Our Houndify Collective AI is a natural fit for automotive brands that aim to provide voice AI to drivers while differentiating, innovating and retaining ownership of their brands,” said Keyvan Mohajer, co-founder and CEO of SoundHound Inc. “We are thrilled to partner with Honda to further enhance the driving experience with the fastest and most accurate voice and AI technology on the market.”

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GroundTruth’s third-party verified Cost Per Visit (CPV) model only charges advertisers for recorded visits into specified dealerships and showrooms. All campaigns offered via the model are measured and verified by Rippll. Honda and Amplifi are the first signed CPV partners.

“Cost Per Visit changes the focus for marketers, from placement to strategy by removing the budgetary risk and concentrating on outcomes,” said Louise Furneaux, marketing communications manager at Honda UK. “Importantly, with GroundTruth’s CPV being independently verified, we have suitable reassurance that we only pay when actual visitation took place.”

Theo Theodorou, general manager EMEA at GroundTruth, added: “Cost Per Visit measured by Rippll’s verification methodology allows us to bring advertisers the certainty and confidence they deserve, not only around guaranteeing offline visits but independently verifying that the visits actually happened. We are delighted to have such eminent brands as Honda and Amplifi be the first to partner with us in the UK.”

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Facebook’s custom audiences tool is enabling Honda to match encrypted email addresses associated with recalled vehicle identification numbers to Facebook users, Reuters reports. The videos aimed at these users will feature stories from people that have previously been injured by the defective airbags – that are an integral part of millions of vehicles around the world – urging people to find out if their vehicle has a faulty airbag.

A recent report outlined the progress of the recalls in the US. It states that there are 46m Takata airbag inflators currently under recall, a number that is set to expand to 65m by the end of next year. However, there are still more than 10m US vehicles and 18.5m faulty inflators that remain unrepaired. These airbags, which have been known to explode and fire shrapnel toward the faces of those in the vehicle, has caused 13 deaths to date in the US.

Looking internationally, Tataka airbags have been responsible for at least 18 deaths and 180 injuries. Of the deaths, 17 have occurred in Honda vehicles.

It is expected that automakers would’ve recalled around 125m vehicles globally by 2019, with the US accounting for more than 60m alone.

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In that spirit, our Innovation Lab feature takes a step beyond the world of apps, ads and handsets with slightly bigger screens, in order to share some of the tech world’s newest ideas. They might be interesting, disruptive or just outright strange, but these are the stories that have caught our eye over the past week.

First Robot Masseuse Gets To Work

A startup in Singapore has developed a robot trained in traditional acupoint massage designed to offer a low-cost treatment alternative for patients with chronic pain in countries where healthcare costs are high. The Expert Manipulative Massage Automation, or EMMA for short, has started work at the NovaHealth Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) clinic in Singapore, working hand-in-hand with human colleagues.

EMMA was created by AiTreat, a healthcare startup incubated by Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. It has a highly articulated arm with soft massage tips that can mimic the human palm and thumb to replicate the Tuina massage technique, designed to alleviate back and knee pain.

EMMA also has advanced sensors and diagnostic functions which can measure the exact stiffness of a particular muscle or tendon. Data is collected and sent to a cloud-based AI program that computes the exact pressure to be delivered during the massage procedure. The AI can also track and analyse patient progress, providing physicians with precise data on an individual’s recovery.

“EMMA is designed to deliver a clinically precise massage according to the prescription of a qualified TCM physician or physiotherapist, without the fatigue faced by a human therapist,” said Albert Zhang, founder of AiTreat and NovaHealth. “By using EMMA to do the labour-intensive massages, we can now offer a longer therapy session for patients while reducing the cost of treatment. The human therapist is then free to focus on other areas such as the neck and limb joints which EMMA can’t massage at the moment.”

Digital Lego Fish Tank Lets Kids Bring Creations to Life
The newly-opened Lego House Museum in Billund, Denmark has unveiled an installation called ‘Fish Designer’, a first-of-its-kind underwater digital fish tank that enables Lego fans to build their own undersea creatures with physical Legos then see them come to life in the digital tank, where they interact with other creatures.

The installation uses mixed reality technology created by LA-based agency Trigger, and enables users to scan their creations at a kiosk then see them dance with an octopus, get chased by sharks and engage in three other fully-animated scenes within the fish tank. Users can choose from nine different personalities for their creatures, influencing how they interact in the scenes.

The digital fish can even be taken home afterwards, thanks to RFID visitor bracelets available at the museum. Users can download their creature onto their bracelet then access it at home to continue interacting with their creation – a 21^st century version of winning a goldfish at a fair, and considerably more animal friendly.  

“The Trigger team worked to create a seamless user experience where kids build fish with physical Lego bricks and then in a single magic moment, scan them, bring them to life and release them as digital fish in massive tanks with hundreds of other fish,” said Jason Yim, CEO and executive creative director at Trigger. “Mixed reality technology can be extremely complicated, and we’re proud to make it simple for Lego fans to use.”

Smart Crossing Could Help Navigate City of the Future

UK design collective Umbrellium has unveiled a new smart road concept called the Starling Crossing that uses object tracking and LEDs to generate an adaptive road surface with virutal markers that can change from moment to moment.

The pedestrian crossing is one of the most complex points of urban negotiation that almost every experiences every day, but the design has changed very little over the last 50 years. The Starling Crossing uses recognisable iconic designs that are understood by pedestrians, cyclists and drivers, but is able to react dynamically in real-time to different conditions.

The result is a road that can modify the patterns, layout, configuration, size and orientation of pedestrian corssings into order to prioritise safety at any given time. The entire road surface is monitored by cameras and embedded with LEDs that can be seen from all angles during both day and night. The design is still a concept at the moment, but a full-scale prototype has been deployed in South London to test its effectiveness in the real world.

Seabin Could Help Clean Up UKs Waters
The level of plastic and waste in the worlds oceans is a growing cause for concern, threatening damage to the natural ecosystem of the sea and its inhabitants. The creators of the Seabin are hoping to help in the fight back against oceanic waste with their natural fiber device that sucks in pollutants around docks and marinas, leaving the water clean and clear.

The UKs first Seabin has been installed near the base of the Land Rover Ben Ainslie Racing team in Portsmouth as part of the groups efforts towards environmental health and sustainability. The device can collect around 1.5kg of waste a day and hold up to 12kg before it needs to be emptied.

The system, which uses a large natural fiber net and a dock-based pump to collect floating debris and surface oil, was initially funded on Indiegogo but will soon go on general sale. Its also being trialled in locations including Spains Port Adriano and the Port of Helsinki in Finland, but we could soon see the solution at every dock, marina and port along the coast.

Honda Unveils Disaster Response Robot

Hondas Robotics division first raised the prospect of creating a robot designed for disaster relief at the 2015 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). Now, two years later, the firm returned to IROS 2017 to revealed what it has been working on – the  E2-DR.

While it might not be the fastest robot ever created, the android is remarkable nimble and stable for an autonomous machine, able to climb ladders, travel up and down stairs and move over uneven ground. It can even adopt a gorilla-like stance for additional stability, and at only 25cm thick, it can squeeze through narrow openings.

In addition, the robot is designed to work in hazardous environments, so its dust-proof, splash-proof and can operate in temperatures from -10 to 40 °C. While Honda was keen to stress that the robot is just a prototype at this stage, given the progress the firm has made in two years, it may not be long until we see it tackling dangerous situations and disasters in the real world.

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Through smartphone integrations, Honda has been able to demonstrate how in-vehicle payments could work in the future to pay for services such as petrol and public parking.

“Payments have evolved from physical plastic cards to a digital, mobile wallet and Honda sees this as an opportunity to bring this technology into the car to pay for services from the comfort of ones own car,” said John Moon, developer relations lead at Honda developer studio.

The partnership with fuel dispenser supplier Gilbarco Veeder-Root aims to enable drivers to pay for fuel from their vehicles. Once the car is parked next to a pump, drivers are notified that they can pay from the car. The driver then selects the amount of petrol they would like and the cost is calculated in app.

IPS Group offers smart parking solutions. Through Honda’s partnership with the group, it intends to make ‘locating and paying for parking fast and easy’. This works by first notifying the driver that smart parking is available. The driver then enters the time needed in the parking space and pays through their device. If drivers wish to add additional time later, they can do so from their mobile phone.

“Turning the car into a platform for payments offers a nearly endless array of ways for automakers, drivers, merchants and other infrastructure companies to completely transform tasks that are tied to cars in some shape or form,” said Avin Arumugam, SVP for Internet of things (IoT) at Visa Inc. “Working with Honda, we both see the huge opportunity this presents for our respective industries, and how we can collectively simplify many daily tasks from the car.”

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Honda hopes that, if the partnership goes ahead, it would allow both companies to learn about the integration of Waymo’s self-driving sensors, software and computing platform into Honda vehicles.

As part of the discussions, Honda says it could modify vehicles to accommodate Waymo’s self-driving technology – with the intention of these vehicles joining Waymo’s existing fleet.

If an agreement is reached, the Honda engineers – based in Silicon Valley, California and Tochigi, Japan – say they would work closely with the Waymo engineers – based in Mountain View, California and Novi, Michigan.

Just a few days ago, it was announced that Waymo and Chrysler had completed the production of 100 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans with full self-driving operations. Should an agreement be reached with Honda, it would become Waymo’s second partner car maker. Waymo’s CEO John Krafcik made it clear, when Waymo became an independent company under the Alphabet umbrella, that it would remain a self-driving car technology firm, rather than an auto manufacturer – choosing to work with car maker partners.

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In the VR experience, a sleigh pulls the viewer along a snow-covered street filled with holiday light displays – as any good Candy Cane Lane should. As the viewer travels down the street, they are introduced more adventurous house decorations. Once the sleigh pulls up at the end of the road, fireworks light up the sky as Santa’s reindeer-led sleigh travels across the video. At the finish, Saint Nick drops a gift into the lap of the viewer as he passes by, at this point, a real gift was dropped on the laps of the children in the hospital.

“This year Honda has the unique privilege of transporting children at CHOC Childrens to a virtual winter wonderland that brings the festive spirit of the holidays to the kids directly,” said Susie Rossick, assistant VP at Honda Auto Marketing. “Seeing the kids heartfelt reactions to the experience and being able to bring magic to their hospital stay is especially meaningful during the holidays.”

Honda will post a short, documentary-style video of the children’s reactions on Facebook. For every ‘like’ or ‘love’ the video receives, Honda says it will donate $1 to CHOC Children’s and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, up to $100,000.

In addition, Honda created a 360° version, in early December, so that other people could share in the festive lights of Candy Cane Lane.

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The partnership aims to collaborate on driver education programs to promote motorbike safety, efforts to reduce congestion in urban areas through rideshare and other technological advancements and initiatives.

“In the midst of the dramatic structural change of the mobility industry, the ‘sharing economy’ that is rapidly expanding all around the world has great potential to broaden the concept of mobility itself,” said Honda director Shinji Aoyama. “For the collaboration with Grab, we will discuss how we can offer safer and more convenient products and services for our shared goal of resolving issues and challenges facing society in Southeast Asia.”

Grab continues to show rapid growth in Southeast Asia – currently offering on-demand transportation across six countries and 34 cities in the region. It completed a $750m (£580m) funding round in September.

At the end of November, Grab introduced Credits to GrabPay – which enables customers to top-up their balances through local banks, ATMs, store and online.

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