If These Walls Could Speak: IBM, Harman Powering Cognitive Rooms

The day is now here when people can gather inside a conference room for a meeting and not have to worry when someone asks a question to which no one knows the answer. All someone will have to do is ask the room itself, because it will dig up the answer for everybody within a few seconds. The adage "if these walls could speak," is coming true in the most literal sense. This is exactly what IBM Watson and several of its partners have done with its new Voice-Enabled Cognitive Rooms, starting with the first use case at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia that was announced April 19. Patients there now interact with in-room speakers that are connected to the IBM Watson IoT Platform and can easily control their in-room subsystems (windows, lights, temperature settings) without having to physically perform any manual tasks or try to figure out new systems. For conference rooms, IBM's cognitive intelligence apps are embedded into Harman microphone soundbars and alarm clocks with other form factors being developed, so that users can interact by using natural language.