During the Mumbai edition of the Future Decoded Summit on February 24, Microsoft revealed the names of several start-ups that it has been working with in India. In the Bengaluru edition, these start-ups showcased their work. Some of these include Elastic Run, Spektacom, Bizongo, Sun Mobility and Bionic Yantra.

Elastic Run built a distribution network that offers capacity planning, real-time order matching and automated order collection, including the fintech part involved – payments system for e-tailers, consumer goods companies on modern AI-powered platform.

Spektacom, founded by cricketer Anil Kumble, makes the Power Bat which captures batting data to analyse various aspects of the game. It then uses Microsoft’s Azure cloud offerings to provide real-time analytics and data management.

Bizongo works in the packaging space with over 290 million packaging units delivered across India till date. Sun mobility offers Battery as a Service (BAAS). It uses Azure IoT to work with state transport undertakings, fleet operators, automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and shared mobility providers.

Bionic Yantra makes robotic exoskeletons for patients to walk. In addition, it uses internet of things (IoT) and machine learning (ML) to track progress and predict recovery. In addition to start-ups, Microsoft has also been partnering with leaders across various industries. “We have an unprecedented opportunity to apply technology to drive economic growth that is inclusive, trusted and sustainable everywhere, including in India,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “That’s why we are partnering with leaders in every industry across the country to help them build their own digital capability, transform their organisations and achieve more in this new era,” he added.

Some of these leaders include, Myntra, Udaan, Royal Enfield, Eureka Forbes, Narayana Health and Project HAMS (Harnessing AutoMobiles for Safety) which was carried out by Institute of Driving and Traffic Research, a joint venture between the department of transport of state governments and Maruti Suzuki India and implemented in RTO, Dehradun.

The post Start-ups showcase capabilities at Microsoft’s Future Decoded Summit appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.

Electronic health record giant Epic Systems has been notifying customers that it no longer plans to pursue integrations with Google Cloud, and will instead focus on integrating into platforms offered by Amazon Web Services and Microsoft’s Azure service, according to a report from CNBC.

That report notes that “insufficient interest” from Epic customers in Google is behind the decision to focus efforts instead with those cloud competitors.

Epic’s Vice President of Research and Development Seth Hain told CNBC that Epic invests “substantial time and engineering effort in evaluating and understanding the infrastructure Epic runs on.”

He added that “scalability, reliability, and security are important factors we consider when evaluating these underlying technologies,” and said the company prioritizes, “infrastructure the Epic community uses today and is likely to use in the future.”

A report in The Wall Street Journal earlier this month noted that Cerner, Epic’s chief rival in the digital medical records space, which has also chosen AWS for its cloud storage needs, made the choice despite being offered “$250 million in discounts and incentives” from Google.

Cerner has since expanded its relationship with AWS, designating it as a preferred artificial intelligence and machine learning provider and aiming to migrate its core applications to AWS.

Google has also been on the defensive for months following the news that the company had teamed up with Ascension Health in a data sharing deal that raised industry eyebrows and data privacy and security concerns.

Google Health VP Dr. David Feinberg pushed back publicly at the Startup Health Festival this past week, defending the company’s partnership.

“The press has made this into something that it’s not,” Feinberg said. “This is not us mining somebody’s records to sell ads, to learn from it, to do machine learning, to develop products. We developed this on de-identified data. We brought this to Ascension. We’re piloting with them.”

While Google apparently signed a business associate agreement with Ascension, and the scope of the data sharing appears to be in line with HIPAA allowances, there are still many questions about how the patient information is being put to use.

The post Epic tells customers it will stop Google Cloud integrations, says report appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.

In an interview with AVSIM, the head of Microsoft’s upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator stated that the team will “try our darnedest” to add VR support.

Last week, we reported on Microsoft telling YouTubers at their preview event that the sim will not support VR at launch, but “maybe” later on.

Microsoft Flight Simulator was announced at E3 2019, for Windows 10 and Xbox One. It uses ultra-high resolution aerial imagery from Bing Maps. Machine learning technology in Microsoft’s Azure cloud generates 3D scenery from these images on a global scale. The sim will work offline too, but the world will be significantly less detailed.

Games journalists who have gone hands-on so far have reported the map generation being so accurate that they’re able to recognize their own apartment complex from the air. The graphical realism is also reportedly far ahead of any other simulator on the market. From the screenshots, it almost looks photo-realistic.

The weather data is also pulled in from the live real world conditions, and the ambient AI models real flights happening in real-time. Even natural disasters can be experienced in real-time in the simulation.

Microsoft’s simulator is clearly the true next generation of flight sims. However, it’s difficult to go back to the limited perspective of a 2D viewport once you’ve experienced virtually being in a cockpit. Hopefully the team can manage to get VR support in soon after launch.

The post Microsoft Flight Simulator VR support: ‘We will try our darnedest to make it happen’ appeared first on Artificial Intelligence.