Last month, Microsoft announced that Teams, its competitor to Slack, Facebooks Workplace, and Googles Hangouts Chat, had passed 44 million daily active users. The milestone overshadowed its unveiling of a few new features coming later this year. Most were straightforward: a hand-raising feature to indicate you have something to say, offline and low-bandwidth support to read chat messages and write responses even if you have poor or no internet connection, and an option to pop chats out into a separate window. But one feature, real-time noise suppression, stood out Microsoft demoed how the AI minimized distracting background noise during a call.

Weve all been there. How many times have you asked someone to mute themselves or to relocate from a noisy area? Real-time noise suppression will filter out someone typing on their keyboard while in a meeting, the rustling of a bag of chips (as you can see in the video above), and a vacuum cleaner running in the background. AI will remove the background noise in real time so you can hear only speech on the call. But how exactly does it work? We talked to Robert Aichner, Microsoft Teams group program manager, to find out.

The use of collaboration and video conferencing tools is exploding as the coronavirus crisis forces millions to learn and work from home. Microsoft is pushing Teams as the solution for businesses and consumers as part of its Microsoft 365 subscription suite. The company is leaning on its machine learning expertise to ensure AI features are one of its big differentiators. When it finally arrives, real-time background noise suppression will be a boon for businesses and households full of distracting noises. Additionally, how Microsoft built the feature is also instructive to other companies tapping machine learning.

Of course, noise suppression has existed in the Microsoft Teams, Skype, and Skype for Business apps for years. Other communication tools and video conferencing apps have some form of noise suppression as well. But that noise suppression covers stationary noise, such as a computer fan or air conditioner running in the background. The traditional noise suppression method is to look for speech pauses, estimate the baseline of noise, assume that the continuous background noise doesnt change over time, and filter it out.

Going forward, Microsoft Teams will suppress non-stationary noises like a dog barking or somebody shutting a door. That is not stationary, Aichner explained. You cannot estimate that in speech pauses. What machine learning now allows you to do is to create this big training set, with a lot of representative noises.

In fact, Microsoft open-sourced its training set earlier this year on GitHub to advance the research community in that field. While the first version is publicly available, Microsoft is actively working on extending the data sets. A company spokesperson confirmed that as part of the real-time noise suppression feature, certain categories of noises in the data sets will not be filtered out on calls, including musical instruments, laughter, and singing. (More on that here: ProBeat: Microsoft Teams video calls and the ethics of invisible AI.)

Microsoft cant simply isolate the sound of human voices because other noises also happen at the same frequencies. On a spectrogram of speech signal, unwanted noise appears in the gaps between speech and overlapping with the speech. Its thus next to impossible to filter out the noise if your speech and noise overlap, you cant distinguish the two. Instead, you need to train a neural network beforehand on what noise looks like and speech looks like.

To get his points across, Aichner compared machine learning models for noise suppression to machine learning models for speech recognition. For speech recognition, you need to record a large corpus of users talking into the microphone and then have humans label that speech data by writing down what was said. Instead of mapping microphone input to written words, in noise suppression youre trying to get from noisy speech to clean speech.

We train a model to understand the difference between noise and speech, and then the model is trying to just keep the speech, Aichner said. We have training data sets. We took thousands of diverse speakers and more than 100 noise types. And then what we do is we mix the clean speech without noise with the noise. So we simulate a microphone signal. And then you also give the model the clean speech as the ground truth. So youre asking the model, From this noisy data, please extract this clean signal, and this is how it should look like. Thats how you train neural networks [in] supervised learning, where you basically have some ground truth.

For speech recognition, the ground truth is what was said into the microphone. For real-time noise suppression, the ground truth is the speech without noise. By feeding a large enough data set in this case hundreds of hours of data Microsoft can effectively train its model. Its able to generalize and reduce the noise with my voice even though my voice wasnt part of the training data, Aichner said. In real time, when I speak, there is noise that the model would be able to extract the clean speech [from] and just send that to the remote person.

Comparing the functionality to speech recognition makes noise suppression sound much more achievable, even though its happening in real time. So why has it not been done before? Can Microsofts competitors quickly recreate it? Aichner listed challenges for building real-time noise suppression, including finding representative data sets, building and shrinking the model, and leveraging machine learning expertise.

We already touched on the first challenge: representative data sets. The team spent a lot of time figuring out how to produce sound files that exemplify what happens on a typical call.

They used audio books for representing male and female voices, since speech characteristics do differ between male and female voices. They used YouTube data sets with labeled data that specify that a recording includes, say, typing and music. Aichners team then combined the speech data and noises data using a synthesizer script at different signal to noise ratios. By amplifying the noise, they could imitate different realistic situations that can happen on a call.

But audiobooks are drastically different than conference calls. Would that not affect the model, and thus the noise suppression?

That is a good point, Aichner conceded. Our team did make some recordings as well to make sure that we are not just training on synthetic data we generate ourselves, but that it also works on actual data. But its definitely harder to get those real recordings.

Aichners team is not allowed to look at any customer data. Additionally, Microsoft has strict privacy guidelines internally. I cant just simply say, Now I record every meeting.'

So the team couldnt use Microsoft Teams calls. Even if they could say, if some Microsoft employees opted-in to have their meetings recorded someone would still have to mark down when exactly distracting noises occurred.

And so thats why we right now have some smaller-scale effort of making sure that we collect some of these real recordings with a variety of devices and speakers and so on, said Aichner. What we then do is we make that part of the test set. So we have a test set which we believe is even more representative of real meetings. And then, we see if we use a certain training set, how well does that do on the test set? So ideally yes, I would love to have a training set, which is all Teams recordings and have all types of noises people are listening to. Its just that I cant easily get the same number of the same volume of data that I can by grabbing some other open source data set.

I pushed the point once more: How would an opt-in program to record Microsoft employees using Teams impact the feature?

You could argue that it gets better, Aichner said. If you have more representative data, it could get even better. So I think thats a good idea to potentially in the future see if we can improve even further. But I think what we are seeing so far is even with just taking public data, it works really well.

The next challenge is to figure out how to build the neural network, what the model architecture should be, and iterate. The machine learning model went through a lot of tuning. That required a lot of compute. Aichners team was of course relying on Azure, using many GPUs. Even with all that compute, however, training a large model with a large data set could take multiple days.

A lot of the machine learning happens in the cloud, Aichner said. So, for speech recognition for example, you speak into the microphone, thats sent to the cloud. The cloud has huge compute, and then you run these large models to recognize your speech. For us, since its real-time communication, I need to process every frame. Lets say its 10 or 20 millisecond frames. I need to now process that within that time, so that I can send that immediately to you. I cant send it to the cloud, wait for some noise suppression, and send it back.

For speech recognition, leveraging the cloud may make sense. For real-time noise suppression, its a nonstarter. Once you have the machine learning model, you then have to shrink it to fit on the client. You need to be able to run it on a typical phone or computer. A machine learning model only for people with high-end machines is useless.

Theres another reason why the machine learning model should live on the edge rather than the cloud. Microsoft wants to limit server use. Sometimes, there isnt even a server in the equation to begin with. For one-to-one calls in Microsoft Teams, the call setup goes through a server, but the actual audio and video signal packets are sent directly between the two participants. For group calls or scheduled meetings, there is a server in the picture, but Microsoft minimizes the load on that server. Doing a lot of server processing for each call increases costs, and every additional network hop adds latency. Its more efficient from a cost and latency perspective to do the processing on the edge.

You want to make sure that you push as much of the compute to the endpoint of the user because there isnt really any cost involved in that. You already have your laptop or your PC or your mobile phone, so now lets do some additional processing. As long as youre not overloading the CPU, that should be fine, Aichner said.

I pointed out there is a cost, especially on devices that arent plugged in: battery life. Yeah, battery life, we are obviously paying attention to that too, he said. We dont want you now to have much lower battery life just because we added some noise suppression. Thats definitely another requirement we have when we are shipping. We need to make sure that we are not regressing there.

Its not just regression that the team has to consider, but progression in the future as well. Because were talking about a machine learning model, the work never ends.

We are trying to build something which is flexible in the future because we are not going to stop investing in noise suppression after we release the first feature, Aichner said. We want to make it better and better. Maybe for some noise tests we are not doing as good as we should. We definitely want to have the ability to improve that. The Teams client will be able to download new models and improve the quality over time whenever we think we have something better.

The model itself will clock in at a few megabytes, but it wont affect the size of the client itself. He said, Thats also another requirement we have. When users download the app on the phone or on the desktop or laptop, you want to minimize the download size. You want to help the people get going as fast as possible.

Adding megabytes to that download just for some model isnt going to fly, Aichner said. After you install Microsoft Teams, later in the background it will download that model. Thats what also allows us to be flexible in the future that we could do even more, have different models.

All the above requires one final component: talent.

You also need to have the machine learning expertise to know what you want to do with that data, Aichner said. Thats why we created this machine learning team in this intelligent communications group. You need experts to know what they should do with that data. What are the right models? Deep learning has a very broad meaning. There are many different types of models you can create. We have several centers around the world in Microsoft Research, and we have a lot of audio experts there too. We are working very closely with them because they have a lot of expertise in this deep learning space.

The data is open source and can be improved upon. A lot of compute is required, but any company can simply leverage a public cloud, including the leaders Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. So if another company with a video chat tool had the right machine learners, could they pull this off?

The answer is probably yes, similar to how several companies are getting speech recognition, Aichner said. They have a speech recognizer where theres also lots of data involved. Theres also lots of expertise needed to build a model. So the large companies are doing that.

Aichner believes Microsoft still has a heavy advantage because of its scale. I think that the value is the data, he said. What we want to do in the future is like what you said, have a program where Microsoft employees can give us more than enough real Teams Calls so that we have an even better analysis of what our customers are really doing, what problems they are facing, and customize it more towards that.

Originally posted here:

How Microsoft Teams will use AI to filter out typing, barking, and other noise from video calls - VentureBeat

In 2018, the market size of Machine Learning Market is million US$ and it will reach million US$ in 2025, growing at a CAGR of from 2018; while in China, the market size is valued at xx million US$ and will increase to xx million US$ in 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during forecast period.

In this report, 2018 has been considered as the base year and 2018 to 2025 as the forecast period to estimate the market size for Machine Learning .

This report studies the global market size of Machine Learning , especially focuses on the key regions like United States, European Union, China, and other regions (Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia).

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This study presents the Machine Learning Market production, revenue, market share and growth rate for each key company, and also covers the breakdown data (production, consumption, revenue and market share) by regions, type and applications. Machine Learning history breakdown data from 2014 to 2018, and forecast to 2025.

For top companies in United States, European Union and China, this report investigates and analyzes the production, value, price, market share and growth rate for the top manufacturers, key data from 2014 to 2018.

In global Machine Learning market, the following companies are covered:

The major players profiled in this report include: Company A

The end users/applications and product categories analysis: On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume, revenue (Million USD), product price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into- General Type

On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Machine Learning for each application, including- Healthcare BFSI

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The content of the study subjects, includes a total of 15 chapters:

Chapter 1, to describe Machine Learning product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market driving force and market risks.

Chapter 2, to profile the top manufacturers of Machine Learning , with price, sales, revenue and global market share of Machine Learning in 2017 and 2018.

Chapter 3, the Machine Learning competitive situation, sales, revenue and global market share of top manufacturers are analyzed emphatically by landscape contrast.

Chapter 4, the Machine Learning breakdown data are shown at the regional level, to show the sales, revenue and growth by regions, from 2014 to 2018.

Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to break the sales data at the country level, with sales, revenue and market share for key countries in the world, from 2014 to 2018.

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Chapter 10 and 11, to segment the sales by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2014 to 2018.

Chapter 12, Machine Learning market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2024.

Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Machine Learning sales channel, distributors, customers, research findings and conclusion, appendix and data source.

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Machine Learning Market Insights on Trends, Application, Types and Users Analysis 2019-2025 - Science In Me

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The level-headed evaluation of submitted research by other experts in the field is what grants scientific journals and academic conferences their respected positions. Peer review determines which papers get published, and that in turn can determine which academic theories are promoted, which projects are funded, and which awards are won.

In recent years however peer review processes have come under fire especially from the machine learning community with complaints of long delays, inconsistent standards and unqualified reviewers.

A new paper proposes replacing peer review with a novel State-Of-the-Art Review (SOAR) system, a neoteric reviewing pipeline that serves as a plug-and-play replacement for peer review.

SOAR improves scaling, consistency and efficiency and can be easily implemented as a plugin to score papers and offer a direct read/dont read recommendation. The team explain that SOAR evaluates a papers efficacy and novelty by calculating the total occurrences in the manuscript of the terms state-of-the-art and novel.

If only a solution were that simple but yes, SOAR was an April Fools prank.

The paper was a product of SIGBOVIK 2020, a yearly satire event of the Association for Computational Heresy and Carnegie Mellon University that presents humorous fake research in computer science. Previous studies have included Denotational Semantics of Pidgin and Creole, Artificial Stupidity, Elbow Macaroni, Rasterized Love Triangles, and Operational Semantics of Chevy Tahoes.

Seriously though, since 1998 the volume of AI papers in peer-reviewed journals has grown by more than 300 percent, according to the AI Index 2019 Report. Meanwhile major AI conferences like NeurIPS, AAAI and CVPR are setting new paper submission records every year.

This has inevitably led to a shortage of qualified peer reviewers in the machine learning community. In a previous Synced story, CVPR 2019 and ICCV 2019 Area Chair Jia-Bin Huang introduced research that used deep learning to predict whether a paper should be accepted based solely on its visual appearance. He told Synced the idea of training a classifier to recognize good/bad papers has been around since 2010.

Huang knows that although his model achieves decent classification performance it is unlikely to ever be used in an actual conference. Such analysis and classification might however be helpful for junior authors when considering how to prepare for their paper submissions.

Turing awardee Yoshua Bengio meanwhile believes the fundamental problem with todays peer review process lies in a publish or perish paradigm that can sacrifice paper depth and quality in favour of speedy publication.

Bengio blogged on the topic earlier this year, proposing a rethink of the overall publication process in the field of machine learning, with reviewing being a crucial element to safeguard research culture amid the fields exponential growth in size.

Machine learning has almost completely switched to a conference publication model, Bengio wrote, and we go from one deadline to the next every two months. In the lead-up to conference submission deadlines, many papers are rushed and things are not checked properly. The race to get more papers out especially as first or co-first author can also be crushing and counterproductive. Bengio is strongly urging the community to take a step back, think deeply, verify things carefully, etc.

Bengio says he has been thinking of a potentially different publication model for ML, where papers are first submitted to a fast turnaround journal such as the Journal of Machine Learning Research for example, and then conference program committees select the papers they like from the list of accepted and reviewed (scored) papers.

Conferences have played a central role in ML, as they can speed up the research cycle, enable interactions between researchers, and generate a fast turnaround of ideas. And peer-reviewed journals have for decades been the backbone of the broader scientific research community. But with the growing popularity of preprint servers like arXiv and upcoming ML conferences going digital due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this may be the time to rethink, redesign and reboot the ML paper review and publication process.

Journalist: Yuan Yuan & Editor: Michael Sarazen

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Its Time to Improve the Scientific Paper Review Process But How? - Synced

New data from GumGums content analysis AI system reveals that keyword-based safety strategies are unduly denying brands access to vast viable ad inventories

GumGum, Inc., an artificial intelligence company specializing in solutions for advertising and media, released data indicating that a majority of online content containing keywords related to the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic is actually safe for brand advertising. The findings come from analysis by Verity, the companys machine learning-based content analysis and brand safety engine. Between March 25th and April 6th, Verity identified 2.85 million unique pages containing COVID-related keywords across GumGums publisher network. Of those pages, the systems threat detection models classified 62% as Safe.

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All the concerns raised lately about coronavirus keyword blocking hurting publishers are valid, said GumGum CEO Phil Schraeder. But this data shows that keyword-based brand safety is also failing brands. Its effectively freezing advertisers out of a huge volume of safe trending content, limiting their reach at a time when it should actually be expanding, as more people than ever are consuming online content.

In that one week alone, brands relying on keyword-based systems for brand safety protection missed out on over 1.5 billion impressions across GumGums supply, Mr. Schraeder pointed out, adding that GumGums publisher network offers a representative sample of impressions available across the wider web. Brands would have been blocked from accessing those impressions because the pages on which the impressions appeared contained one or more instance of the words covid, covid19, covid-19, covid 19, coronavirus, corona virus, pandemic, or quarantine.

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Verity deemed them brand safe based on multi-model natural language processing and computer vision analysis, which integrates assessments from eight machine learning models trained to evaluate threat-levels across distinct threat categories. The systems threat sensitivity is adjustable, as is its confidence threshold for validating safety conclusions. The findings released today are based on Veritys nominal safety and confidence settingsconfigured to align with the threat sensitivity of an average Fortune 100 brand.

Even when we apply the most conservative settings, more than half the content is safe, said GumGum CTO, Ken Weiner. Coronavirus is touching every facet of society, so its hardly surprising that even the most innocuous content references it. Keyword blocking just goes way too far, which is why people are calling for whitelisting of specific websites. That mindset shows whats wrong with the way people think about brand safety these days. The idea that you have to choose between reach and safety is false. Our industry needs to wake up to whats technologically available.

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Mr. Weiner noted that GumGums analysis shows that the pages containing COVID-related keywords in certain popular IAB content categories are particularly safe.

Let me put it this way: If youre looking for a quick and easy brand safety solution right now rather than keyword blocking or whitelisting everything Id recommend simply advertising on content categories like technology, pop culture, and video gaming. Youll get plenty of reach and over 80% of their COVID-related content is safe.

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60% of Content Containing COVID-Related Keywords Is Brand Safe - MarTech Series

This article is part of our latest Artificial Intelligence special report, which focuses on how the technology continues to evolve and affect our lives.

Most dog owners intuitively understand what their pet is saying. They know the difference between a bark for Im hungry and one for Im hurt.

Soon, a device at home will be able to understand them as well.

Furbo, a streaming camera that can dispense treats for your pet, snap photos and send you a notification if your dog is barking, provides a live feed of your home that you can check on a smartphone app.

In the coming months, Furbo is expected to roll out a new feature that allows it to differentiate among kinds of barking and alert owners if a dogs behavior appears abnormal.

Thats sort of why dogs were hired in the first place, to alert you of danger, said Andrew Bleiman, the North America general manager for Tomofun, the company that makes Furbo. So we can tell you not only is your dog barking, but also if your dog is howling or whining or frantically barking, and send you basically a real emergency alert.

The ever-expanding world of pet-oriented technology now allows owners to toss treats, snap a dog selfie and play with the cat all from afar. And the artificial intelligence used in such products is continuing to refine what we know about animal behavior.

Mr. Bleiman said the new version of Furbo was a result of machine learning from the video data of thousands of users. It relied on 10-second clips captured with its technology that users gave feedback on. (Furbo also allows users to opt out of sharing their data.)

The real evolution of the product has been on the computer vision and bioacoustics side, so the intelligence of the software, he said. When you have a camera that stares at a dog all day and listens to dogs all day, the amount of data is just tremendous.

The Furbo team is even able to refine the data by the breed or size of a dog: I can tell you, for example, that on average, at least as much as our camera picks up, a Newfoundland barks four times a day and a Husky barks 36 times a day.

Petcube is another interactive pet camera, the latest iteration of which is equipped with the Amazon Alexa voice assistant.

Yaroslav Azhnyuk, the companys chief executive and co-founder, is confident that A.I. is helping pet owners better understand their animals behavior. The company is working on being able to detect unusual behaviors.

We started applying algorithms to understand pet behavior and understand what they might be trying to say or how they are feeling, he said. We can warn you that OK, your dogs activity is lower than usual, you should maybe check with the vet.

Before the coronavirus pandemic forced many pet owners to work from home during the day, they were comforted by the ability to check on their pet in real time, which had driven demand for all kinds of cameras. Mr. Bleiman said the average Furbo user would check on their pet more than 10 times a day during the workweek.

Petcube users spent about 50 minutes a week talking to their pet through the camera, Mr. Azhnyuk said.

The same way you want to call your mom or child, you want to call your dog or cat, he said. Weve seen people using Petcubes for turtles and for snakes and chickens and pigs, all kinds of animals.

Now that shes working from home as part of measures to contain the spread of coronavirus in New York City, Patty Lynch, 43, has plenty of time to watch her dog, Sadie. When shes away from her Battery Park apartment, she uses a Google Nest to keep an eye on her. Ms. Lynch originally bought the camera three years ago to stream video of Sadie while she recovered from surgery.

I get alerts whenever she moves around, Ms. Lynch said. I also get noise alerts if she starts barking at something. Ill be able to go in and then see her in real time and figure out what shes doing.

Sometimes I just like to check in on her, she said. I just look at her and she makes me smile.

Lionel P. Robert Jr., associate professor at the University of Michigans school of information and a core faculty member at Michigans Robotics Institute, said A.I.-enabled technology has so far centered on the owners need for assurance that their pet was OK while they were away from home.

He predicted that future technology would focus more on the wellness of the pet.

There are a lot of people using these cameras because when they see their pet they feel assured and they feel comfortable. Right now, its less for the pet and more for the humans, he said.

Imagine if all that data was being fed to your veterinarian in real time and theyre sending back data. The idea of well-being for the pet, its weight, how far its walking.

Mr. Robert noted that other parts of the world had gone a step further with technology: Theyre actually adopting robotic pets.

While products like Petcube and Furbo are mostly used by dog owners, there are A.I. devices out there for cats as well. Many people track them throughout the day using interactive cameras, and one start-up has devised an intelligent laser for automated playtime.

Yuri Brigance came up with the idea about four years ago, after his divorce. He was away from the house, working up to 10 hours a day, and was worried about his two cats at home.

This idea came up of using a camera to track animals, where their positions are in the room and moving the laser intelligently instead of randomly so that they have something more real to chase, he said.

The result was Felik, a toy that can be scheduled via an app for certain playtimes and has features such as zone restriction, which designates areas in the home the laser cant go, such as on furniture.

Mr. Brigance said his product did not store video in the cloud and required an internet connection to work, like many video products. It analyzes data in the device.

We use machine-learning models to perform whats called semantic segmentation, which is basically separating the background, the room and all the objects in it, from interesting objects, things that are moving, like cats or humans, Mr. Brigance explained.

The device then determines where the cat has been and what it is currently doing, and predicts what it is about to do next, so it can create a playful game that mirrors chasing live prey.

The laser toy, Mr. Brigance said, has provided his cats, and those of his customers, with hours upon hours of playtime.

Some people are using it almost on a daily basis and theyre recording things like where they used to have a cat that would scratch furniture, that would get really agitated if it had nothing to do, that this actually prevents them from destroying the house, he said.

Or cats that meow in the morning and try to wake up their owners if you set a schedule for this thing to activate in the morning, it can distract the cat and let you sleep a little bit longer.

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With A.I., the Secret Life of Pets Is Not So Secret - The New York Times

Bluecore, the retail marketing technology company that more than 400 retailers rely on to launch highly personalized campaigns at scale, announced that it has been namedGoogle Cloud Technology Partner of the Year for Retail, for the second year in a row.

Bluecorewas recognized for its achievements in the Google Cloud ecosystem for giving retailers the ability to launch highly personalized campaigns that result in driving repeat purchase and increase brand loyalty.

This year also marks the deepening of Bluecores relationship with Google Cloud, with the first of a series of joint initiatives between the two companies. In April, Bluecore and Google Cloud will be co-hosting the first DTC Collectivean invite-only conversation among top retail executives, led by Carrie Tharp, VP Retail of Google Cloud,andBluecoreCEO Fayez Mohamood.

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Bluecorespatented technology is designed specifically for retailers and built natively on Google Cloud, whose infrastructure is designed to scale digital performance across enterprise brands with a direct-to-consumer business model. As a result of the partnership, retail marketing organizationsonce reliant on legacy technologies and internal departments to access and action customer dataare able to launch personalized, insights-driven campaigns within minutes.

We appreciate the recognition from Google Cloud as we continue the valuable work were doing together, said Fayez Mohamood, CEO,Bluecore. Our team is pleased to be able to continue to bring our solution to Google Cloud customers and expand our relationship with a series of thought leadership and actionable customer insights for retailers.

Currently in use by more than 400 retailers, including Express, Tommy Hilfiger, The North Face, TomboyX and Bass Pro Shops,Bluecoreleverages Google Cloud to surface actionable insights at the intersection of 500+ million customer profiles and a combined product catalog of over 150 million products.

Bluecoresmachine learning models then determine each shoppers lifetime value, product affinities, receptivity to discounts, likelihood to convert, and other traits to inform the best next communication. Marketers can act on these insights and create strategies in Bluecores campaign workflow within minutes, creating personalized shopper communications via email or during a shoppers experience on a brands ecommerce sites.

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Were delighted to recognize Bluecore as the 2019 Google Cloud Technology Partner of the Year for Retail, said Kevin Ichhpurani, Corporate Vice President, Global Partner Ecosystem at Google Cloud. Retail customers can leverage Bluecores AI- and analytics-driven marketing tools on Google Cloud to better identify customers needs and habits, ultimately helping to connect shoppers with the content and products they want. We look forward to a continued partnership with Bluecore to help retail organizations modernize their data and marketing practices with the cloud.

This announcement follows the recent publication ofBluecores research studywith Forrester Consulting, which highlights the need for retailers to leverage technology that allows them to offer their customers the personalized experience that retailers get from working with Bluecore and Google Cloud.

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Bluecore Named Google Cloud's 'Technology Partner of the Year for Retail' - AiThority

Its odd to consider weve been in the midst of this crisis for a month now. We all face a multitude of daunting hurdles some much more than others and yet we continue on each day.

Despite a devastating blow, arts and culture in this town continues to produce creative expression and adjust to new platforms. With not even one public gathering scheduled over the next several weeks, CAFE 541 still has multiple local productions to choose from.

We give thanks that closed doors and social distance has done nothing to quiet human expression. (And be sure to hit us up at #CAFE_541 for all of the many great events we didnt mention.)

Travel Oregon at Home

Nothings better in springtime than getting out and about in our endless outdoor playground. With COVID-19 curbing many activities, Travel Oregon provides a "Families Guide To Oregon Activities at Home" to those cooped up inside together.

Surf to traveloregon.com to find the free guide that includes fun coloring activities, writing prompts, Oregon-centric games, Native history, whale watching and much more.

National Poetry Month

Thanks to local poetry slam queen Jorah LaFleur for reminding us that April is National Poetry Month. What better way to while away the day than string together a few lines that reflect the times or read up on the innumerable lyrical declarations at our fingertips.

Whether its reading or writing just one poem, verse brings perspective and opens up the world in ways that we may never have imagined. Check out Jorahs Facebook page for different locals taking part in the challenge and go to poets.org/national-poetry-month to find 30 way to celebrate poetry.

Practice mindfulness

Home seclusion distills down to a choice of few diversions, some of which might be driving us up the wall right now. One positive way to make use of still time is to be still ourselves. Mindfulness practice asks us to filter reality to right now because there is no time like the all-encompassing present.

Mindfulness takes a multitude of forms. Calysta Cheyenne, lead singer of local band Fortunes Folly, offers a free outdoor session on Facebook. And for moms and dads, Parents Magazine goes into the details of suggestions, like listening walks, mindful eating and self-body scans.

The Eugene Insight Meditation Community also now has online discussions. The Greater Good Institute, Berkeley, offers articles, lessons and quizzes on the subject. For a listen, Western philosopher Alan Watts wonderful logical journey through existential thought is a good place to begin.

Online exhibitions

As arts advocates here at CAFE 541, were always excited at a collision of cultural worlds. The Morrison Hotel Gallery offers one of those happy impacts with fine art music photographs. Representing the archives of more than 125 renowned music photographers, MHGs vast catalog of images encompasses several generations of jazz, blues and rock icons.

Search its more than 100,000 images by photographer, music artist, band or concert. Free at morrisonhotelgallery.com.

In addition, we continue our coverage on local and national artists to check out on social media.

Ila Rose instagram.com/ilaroseart

Jerry Ross facebookcom/pittore44

Robert Dandarov instagram.com/robertdandarov

Carla Ciuffo instagram.com/carlaciuffoworks

John St. Christopher instagram.com/christopherst.john

Edward Gorey instagram.com/edwardgorey

Contact reporter Matt Denis at mdenis@registerguard.com or 541-338-2265 and follow him on Instagram @CAFE_541. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.

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CAFE 541: Matts Picks: Interactive art, games, music and travel all accessible from quarantined homes - The Register-Guard

Ron Purser is a prominent critic of how mindfulness meditation has been at times misused and abused. He wants the practices to be used to fight for more social justice and to fuel societal changes to reduce burnout and stress. He is a professor of Management at San Francisco University and author of the book McMindfulness.

We discuss the roots of meditation practices, their spread and corporatization,and whether suffering is in our minds or in the outside world and in how our society is structured. (Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.)

What is your personal experience with meditation?

It goes back to when I was an undergraduate in college. I was dabbling with numerous things back in those days. Many people were. I had actually moved out to Northern California, to the San Francisco Bay Area. There was a Tibetan Buddhist teacher who had an institute in Berkeley just north of the University of California. I started taking courses there. Everyone was reading books by Alan Watts he was the one who sort of popularized Zen. I started taking classes at this Tibetan Buddhist Institute. Ive been affiliated with them since then thats about 35- 40 years or so. I was coming more out of the Zen tradition and Tibetan Buddhist tradition: mindfulness is not really central to either of those.

What is your criticism of how mindfulness is practiced today?

Mindfulness is always practiced within some sort of context whether its a religious context or whether its a medical therapeutic practice. Its not a standalone practice by any means, even though people may consider it to be. So, when its completely severed from any kind of ethically informed context, whatever environment it is being deployed in becomes the context for the practice. So if its deployed for corporations and the underlying unspoken context is this will help you to be more productive, then that informs the practice.

How would you summarize the core argument of your book and its critique of corporate mindfulness?

There are two key messages. That mindfulness as a standalone technique is misguided. Number two, to send a message to people that your well-being, your health, your sense of success in the world is completely within your own control by practicing mindfulness is wrong. In other words, Im against the idea that true happiness is a skill, that you can hack your brain or train your brain and it doesnt depend on your social or economic circumstances. So its an ideological critique: against the idea of rugged individualism, that the individual needs to learn to adapt to the social, political and economic conditions, even if theyre toxic. Thats really a myth: resilience has a lot to do with whether you can access external community and environmental resources. You could be less stressed and more healthy if you have access to these resources and its not just about turning to an app to temporarily destress it also matters whether you have a healthy community, whether you have health care, whether you have child care, whether you have a living wage.

Do you think meditation can be harnessed to help people fight for social justice and make our society more centred around wellbeing, or do you think its largely focused on individual people improving their lives?

If you try to turn to the Buddhist tradition historically for any sort of radical application of mindfulness, you are not going to find it. Traditionally, Buddhism has relied on state support for monasteries, kings and emperors and so forth. Meditators were not going to become political or radicalized and question the social and political order. But you do see adaptations within very small segments of the Western Buddhist community, who have socially engaged Buddhists that are trying to say, look, we can use these practices in ways that can prevent social activists from getting burnt out. Its still been more of an individual service model helping people become a little more resilient. But yes, there are innovators out there asking if we can do something besides therapeutic applications for mindfulness.

As youre still meditating and have been for decades, where do you see meditation practices as having the most use?

Well, yeah, certainly. Im not denigrating people getting benefits or therapeutic gains. I really try to make that clear in the book. Thats not what Im critiquing. My critique is at the ideological level and the messaging of how these practices have been portrayed and presented. Obviously there is benefit in terms of reducing mental ruminations and reducing stress, theres no doubt that they work in that respect. Im not really critiquing the individual beneficial effects. My fear is with individualizing public health problems, or structural social problems. I go into the history of how stress was privatized and pathologized. Its reductionistic to say stress is just a maladaptation, our inability to adapt to the environment and its all inside our heads.

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As they say, do the Tao now.

Many of us have turned to spiritual books and meditational practices in order to cope with the unrelenting stress that our present COVID-19 situation gives us. With nothing but time on our hands, we're home and we're starting to grow bored.

Yes, it's fun to pretend this is one big Netflix-Hulu-Prime Marathon of the Gods, but the truth is,we're nervous, and television entertainment is only acting as a band-aid, a temporary suture for our fear and depression.

I have been a student of Eastern philosophy for my entire life, and though I'm not a religious person, I do dabble in the practices that give me peace and lift me up. I've lived in an ashram where I studied yoga and pranayama, the practice of breathing; read all the books by Alan Watts on Zen Buddhism; grew up with Paganism and Witchcraft; learned the ways of High Magick, tantra and mantra meditation.

It was always hard for me to walk the Abrahamic paths, and Western religions left me cold. Of all the paths I've walked, the one that works best for me is the Tao. And it is the Tao that is getting me through the crisis.

RELATED:50 Life Quotes From Famous Philosophers To Inspire And Motivate You Every Single Day

It isthe way, the path, the road. It is the natural order of the universe.It is nature.

The Tao, pronounced "dow," is a mysterious concept, not able to be fully known, but intuited, felt. The Tao is the universe, and our awareness of it as infinite, perfect and eternally nameless. The study of the Tao is called Taoism.

When we align ourselves with the Tao, we are in full acceptance of nature and her ways. It is the momentwe know in our heart that what is happening at any given moment is both part of the plan and as it should be, no matter what is occurring.

This may feel uncomfortable at first, but when we know ourselves as part of the ever flowing universal energy,we fear nothing and accept all. We become bigger than our limited understanding of this terrifying virus.We become at peace with all things.

The wisdom of the Tao is brought to us by the enlightened being named Lao Tzu, who gave us the magnificent manuscript entitledTao te Ching:The Book of the Way. These 81 poetic and thought-provoking verses help us to stay balanced; they enable us to seek contentment in whatever our earthly situation is.

If we are able to master our minds, then the world of "things" and situations are a mere play of consciousness. Nature gives and takes, and we are here to witness.

It would be impossible to understand the Tao in one sitting, but one reading fromTao te Ching definitely has the power to attract you, as we all seek peace.The Tao is a place of ultimate peace and solace.

I hope you can see into them and allow them to penetrate your fear.

1. Everything is part of the whole.

When we "do the Tao now," we accept that everything is part of the unending flow of the universe.

If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.

2. Accept, don't change.

Try not to see what is wrong with this or that. Instead, come to accept things as they are, and you will find the beauty in all situations.

If you try to change it, you will ruin it. Try to hold it, and you will lose it.

3. Desire causes pain.

When we desire, we set ourself up for disappointment. Unfulfilled desire turns to anger and frustration.

To understand the limitation of things, desire them.

4. We need leaders, not pushers.

Arrogance limits us. If we are ever to be a light to others, we must understand that leadership is not about forcing our will, but of understanding what people want and need.

All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. humility gives it its power. If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. if you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.

5. The wisdom of age is real.

When we are very young, we think we know it all. But life has lessons for us, and as each one comes, we begin to understand that these lessons will never end.

The further one goes, the less one knows.

6. Lust and greed cause chaos.

The human spirit is made weaker when we spend too much time dwelling on the thousand things that we want. When we do not want, we live in peace.

When there is no desire, all things are at peace.

RELATED:What Is I Ching? How To Use The Ancient 'Manual Of Divination' For Your Relationships And Love Life

7. True love is found in letting go.

We needn't prove things. What we are, and who we are should be enough. When we give of ourselves purely, we receive more than we ever thought possible.

True words aren't eloquent;

eloquent words aren't true.

Wise men don't need to prove their point;

men who need to prove their point aren't wise.

The Master has no possessions.

The more he does for others,

the happier he is.

The more he gives to others,

the wealthier he is.

8. Duality defines life on Earth.

If we accept that all things are balanced by their polar opposite, we come to know that all experiences are part of the whole experience. Bad will become good, and vice versa, over time.

Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self. When we don't see the self as self, what do we have to fear?

9. Trust in the universal flow of all things.

The Tao nature is the only reality. When we force things into being like love orbusinesswe are assuming those things wouldn't work without our prodding. They will. Do the Tao now.

Rushing into action, you fail.

Trying to grasp things, you lose them.

Forcing a project to completion,

you ruin what was almost ripe.

Therefore the Master takes action

by letting things take their course.

He remains as calm at the end

as at the beginning.

He has nothing,

thus has nothing to lose.

What he desires is non-desire;

what he learns is to unlearn.

He simply reminds people

of who they have always been.

He cares about nothing but the Tao.

Thus he can care for all things.

10. Understand the Law of Polarity.

All things are balanced with their opposite. If we insist on doing things one way, we must come to understand that the opposite effect is not only possible, but probable.

Not-knowing is true knowledge.

Presuming to know is a disease.

First realize that you are sick;

then you can move toward health.

RELATED:50 Ancient Quotes About Life And Love

11. Release the need for stress.

Trust in the idea that if you let go, you will get your answer. Quiet minds hold infinite knowledge. Noisy minds hold very little other than noise.

Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear.

12. Humility is understanding.

Brash behavior only shows weakness and neurosis. One cannot help their fellow human until we come to terms with the idea that we are all flawed, with the potential within us for greatness.

A great nation is like a great man:

When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.

Having realized it, he admits it.

Having admitted it, he corrects it.

He considers those who point out his faults

as his most benevolent teachers.

He thinks of his enemy

as the shadow that he himself casts.

13. The universe flows freely, and so must we.

If we wish to understand who we are, what our place is in this universe, we must give up the notion that we know it all. Let go of your preconceived ideas in order to find out what the truth is. Make way for the truth by letting go of the lies of the mind.

The world belongs to those who let go.

(If you're interested in the Tao, read the Tao te Ching, and supplement the readings with further discourse by Dr. Wayne Dyer.)

Being of the Tao has really helped me during this crisis. It's good to feel like a candle that continues to burn as the wind around me blows. That is the Tao that is the feeling of peace one can have all the time, even in the face of calamity. Do the Tao now.

For further reading, here are a few books to look into:

RELATED:How Embracing The Japanese Aesthetic Of Wabi-Sabi Deepens Intimacy In Love & Relationships

DoriHartley is a portrait artist, essayist and a journalist. She's been published in The Huffington Post,ParentDish, The Daily Beast, Psychology Today,XOJane,MyDailyand The Stir. Her art booksBeauty, Antler Velvet, and 'MadsMikkelsen: Portraits of the Actor' are allavailable on Amazon.

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What Is Tao? + 13 Quotes From Eastern Philosophy To Help You Cope With Coronavirus Anxiety - YourTango

The Director of Ohios Department of Health, Dr. Amy Acton, is no stranger to adversity. She was once abused by one of her mothers partners, she bounced around to about 18 different living arrangements in her youth and she even spent one winter living in a tent. But she says her familiarity with disarray positioned her to be ready for a different catastrophe: the gravest pandemic the United States has seen in over 100 years.

I think because of the childhood I had, she tells TIME via video chat from the Ohio Statehouse, that Im at my best during a crisis.

Her collective calm amid calamity has played out in front of the Buckeye State and the nation. Before the CDC began issuing nationwide and universal social distancing guidelines, the state health official was working with her Columbus city counterparts to limit the potential for the spread of disease at an annual fitness festival that was expected to draw a couple hundred thousand visitors and at least 22,000 athletes from 80 different countries. With Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and Acton at the helm, Ohio became the first state to shut down all public schools for an extended period of time on March 12. And just five days later, Acton issued a decree cancelling non-essential or elective surgeries and procedures that require personal protective equipmenteven before New York, Americas epicenter of the virus, announced it was pausing elective procedures.

While President Donald Trump claimed the virus is going away on April 3 and tweeted that we were approaching a LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL! (emphasis his) on April 6, Acton has been using her daily press briefing to treat the rising COVID-19 death tolls and lack of testing resources like the virulent crisis that it is. Today is the day we have to batten down those hatches, she somberly urged at her March 22 press conference. There is no time left. Listen to what Italy is telling us. On April 7, she doubled down: Youre winning the war to protect our scarce resources and keeping our hospitals being able to deal with this. The second we let our foot off the gas, the second we are no longer that category 3 hurricane, it can pick up wind again and we can be a category 5.

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Though the warning bells have gotten louder over time, Acton says they first entered her radar in early January. She was on a frightening phone call with the Centers for Disease and Control where a global epidemiologist was talking about an erratic illness that was spreading across Chinas Wuhan region. Something about her voice and what she was saying made me think this is zoonotic, which means transmitted from animals.

She sounded a little more alarmed, Acton says of the global epidemiologists message.

Acton, who holds both a medical degree and masters in public health, leapt into action. I went straight to my state epidemiologist, and I was like, Lets talk about this coronavirus. And that began the adventure. Honestly, it has been seven days a week since then.

Her prescient unease has likely saved lives in Ohio. The states coronavirus figures are lagging behind that of its peers. For example, Georgiawhich recently reopened its beaches to the publichas a smaller population size than Ohio, but almost double both the number of confirmed cases and deaths. While Ohio is the seventh most populous state in the nation, it ranks seventeenth in confirmed cases and fifteenth in confirmed coronavirus-related deaths.

Robyn Petras, a 53-year-old Lancaster, Ohio, resident credits Acton for keeping the tallies so low, even though Petras personally tested positive for the virus on March 24.

Petras has Cystic Fibrosis, a lung disease that causes thick mucus to build up in her lungs, which can affect respiratory function. After watching the state health official speak about the common COVID-19 symptoms on television, Petras wondered whether the virus might be causing her low-grade fever, dry cough and fatigue. The realization led her to connect with her Cystic Fibrosis team that recommended she adjust her treatment protocol in order to fend off more severe coronavirus systems, in anticipation of a positive diagnosis. Her sincere and calming presence, mixed with her compassion and medical knowledge gave me comfort and courage to take the virus head on, Petras says of Acton. I absolutely credit them for their quick and proactive action for not only saving my life, but the lives of my family and friends, she adds of Acton and DeWine.

And Petras is far from the only fan. A local apparel company designed shirts and sweatshirts in Actons honor with the slogan, Not All Heroes Wear Capes, with proceeds benefiting at-risk youths, like Acton once was. Further, more than 120,000 people have joined a Dr. Amy Acton fan page on Facebook, where some have even turned Acton and DeWines 2 p.m. briefings into Snackin with Acton and Wine with DeWine happy hours.

Actons ascension to the spotlight has not been without criticism, however. Back in mid-March, she indicated that the presence of community spread meant that at least 1% percent of all Ohio residents were carrying the virus. We have 11.7 million people, she reasoned at the time. So the math is over 100,000. Some experts were quick to cast doubt on the claim as an exaggeration. But if it was an overestimate, it also served as a reminder that many still claim the U.S. doesnt have enough testing kits or resources to know for sure.

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I do believe when we go back and look, we will find that people died and had this that were never detected, way before that moment I spoke, she says. She also clarifies that the alarming 100,000 figure was meant to include those who were completely asymptomatic.

Acton indicates shed rather arm people with as much relevant insight as possible at her press briefings than keep them in the dark. I really believe that people, when given the information, will use that to help themselves feel prepared. Im a person who likes to know the reality, she says. Maybe my childhood led to that, too.

To compile and disseminate that information during the current pandemic, Acton wakes up in the wee hours of the morning and is fielding calls from Governor DeWine by 7 a.m. She then prepares for the press briefings, communicates with health administrators and other state and local health actors, and then works in the states emergency operations center before she finally crashes in bed between 8 and 10 p.m.

Not everyone needs to help lead a states pandemic response to make a difference, though. By staying home when youre able, helping to supply those in need when you can and keeping in touch with loved ones during this period of isolation, all of us can do our part to help flatten the curve. I used to say if aliens invaded us, it would be a blessing. Wed all finally be on the same team. Wed have this common enemywell that is now, she argues. Im an ordinary person. So if I can be doing something extraordinary seeming, every one of you can.

But even she tries to carve out time for herself amid the chaos. I get up around 4 a.m. because thats a quiet time for me where I read and catch up, she says. When she was a child living in a dreary basement, Acton says she turned to books like Charlottes Web, the Hardy Boys and Little House on the Prairie to escape from her reality. I read and knew that it could be different than this, she recalls. These days, her reading material consists largely of COVID-19 news and research rather than tales of farm animals and mystery. Though, she notes that she does have an assortment of lighter literature by the likes of Bren Brown, Joseph Campbell and Alan Watts waiting for her once the pandemic subsides.

My husband makes fun of it because its like a dust-collecting pile of colorful books, she says of her collection, but they give me comfort to have them there. It goes to show that some thingslike what brings us peace in turmoilnever change.

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From Homeless to Health Director: Meet the Woman Fighting to Flatten the Coronavirus Curve in Ohio - Yahoo News