BONA FIDE holiday revelry is often linked to a good mixed drink. Parties where decadent cocktails flow befit the season, especially when those behind the bar know what they are doing. Result: Manhattans with too much whiskey, martinis made hastily with sweet vermouth and too much astringent lemon concentrate. So why not delegate the task to a computer? Over the past few years, cocktail machines have emerged that promise to do the difficult work of remembering recipes more capably than a designated bartender who's had a few tipples herself.

Robert Joseph, Director, Industry Strategy for Industry 4.0, Stanley Black & Decker, is a data scientist working on implementing the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) at Black & Decker. His career spans experience at AT&T Bell Laboratories, US West, Sony, Freshwater Software, and for school districts across the country. Also, as a university professor for 10 years, he has taught over 3,000 students in all levels of computer science and mathematics. He holds a Pd.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and a BS and an MS from MIT in electrical engineering. He recently spent a few minutes to talk with AI Trends Editor John P. Desmond. AI Trends: Thank you, Robert, for talking to us today.

In April, it named a number of companies including Black & Decker, Bissell, iLife and Hoover in a complaint filed to the US International Trade Commission wherein it asked the commission to investigate their supposed patent violations and ban any products that it finds to incorporate any infringed upon intellectual property. Now, however, iRobot says it has reached an agreement with Black & Decker. Most of the settlement's contents are confidential, but iRobot says that Black & Decker has agreed to stop selling its robotic vacuums for a certain period of time once it works through its current inventory. In return, iRobot has removed its competitor from the pending US International Trade Commission investigation and US District Court of Massachusetts case. "This settlement represents another successful milestone in the enforcement effort iRobot initiated earlier this year," Glen Weinstein, chief legal officer at iRobot, said in a statement.

That data is of the spatial variety: the dimensions of a room as well as distances between sofas, tables, lamps and other home furnishings. To a tech industry eager to push "smart" homes controlled by a variety of Internet-enabled devices, that space is the next frontier. Smart home lighting, thermostats and security cameras are already on the market, but Colin Angle, chief executive of Roomba maker iRobot Corp (IRBT.O), says they are still dumb when it comes to understanding their physical environment. He thinks the mapping technology currently guiding top-end Roomba models could change that and is basing the company's strategy on it. "There's an entire ecosystem of things and services that the smart home can deliver once you have a rich map of the home that the user has allowed to be shared," said Angle.