The famous humanoid robot Sophia painted a self-portrait that was later sold at an auction for over $688,000. The artwork is Sophia’s interpretation of her own face and it was created as an NFT (non-fungible token), a digital data unit that’s been popular lately.

The image is titled Sophia Instantiation. It was made in collaboration with artist Andrea Bonaceto, who’s also a partner at blockchain investment company Eterna Capital. She created a colorful portrait of Sophia first, and the robot then painted her own interpretation.

Sophia was developed by Hanson Robotics and has been active since 2016. She’s the first robot with a nationality (Saudi Arabian) and has appeared at many conferences and talk shows in the past.

As NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway says, the fact that she paints was “based completely on decisions she made without any human assistance.” The self-portrait wasn’t the only thing Sophia painted. Her other creations were also sold in batches of 30 for $2,500 to $3,000. She sold the artwork worth over $1 million in total.

The buyer of the most expensive piece, a digital artist known as 888, tweeted “I have goosebumps.” “Me too, we really had a connection,” replied Sophia’s official Twitter account.

The post This Robot’s “Self-Portrait” Was Sold for Almost $700,000 appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

A South Korean startup company named Petpuls developed an innovative product that will help dog owners understand their beloved pets better. Their smart dog collar uses artificial intelligence to “translate” dogs’ emotions based on their barks, effectively telling the owners what their pets are trying to communicate.

The Petpuls collar uses voice recognition technology to monitor the emotions of dogs and understands if they are happy, sad, angry, relaxed, etc. To be able to do this, the company created an algorithm using 10,000 samples from 50 different dog breeds. The dog owners get the data delivered to their smartphone app.

“It comes with an activity tracker and rest tracker. With the activity tracker, it will show how much activity has been done, based on the calorie consumption analysis. At the same time, the rest tracker shows how much rest the dog needs or how tired the dog is,” said Andrew Gil, the company’s director of global marketing.

Their collar sells for around $100 and it’s the perfect gift for a dog owner in your life. We’re sure we’ll see many more products like this in the near future!

The post This Smart Dog Collar Can “Translate” Barks appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Amazon One is a new service from Amazon. It’s a brand new way to pay without contact by scanning your palm. It won’t be used just for payments, but also for many other things that require authentication. For now, it will be set up in some Amazon Go stores before it becomes a common thing everywhere.

The registration is fairly simple and it involves inserting your credit card in the device for the first time and hovering your palm over the device to connect it with the given card. After you sign up, you can use your palm for payments that are easier than ever!

The device works by analyzing several aspects of your palm. Since no two palms are the same, this should be one of the safest modes of contactless payment. Your biometric data will be protected and the Amazon One devices are supposed to have multiple security controls. They won’t store the image of your palm but encrypt it and send it to the cloud to recognize. If you want, you’ll be able to delete the data.

It’s possible to sign up without an Amazon account, you only need a credit card and a phone number. Would you give this payment option a try?

The post The Future of Contactless Payment Comes from Amazon appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Like many things in the world, technology is changing the way we experience beauty. Our makeup and skin-care routines are about to get a lot more high-tech and the changes are coming faster than you’d expect. Here are some beauty gadgets to get excited about.

Sheet Masks

Tons of people use sheet masks, but upgraded versions of sheet masks have a mild electric current that pushes its ingredients deeper into the skin than normal sheet masks. 3D printing will also revolutionize the way we use sheet face masks—soon enough, you will be able to use an in-store app to scan the dimensions of your face to print a hydrogel mask that fits you perfectly. It will even be customized with ingredients based on the different sections of your face.

AI Makeup Artist

You may never have to apply your own foundation again as there’s currently a printer that scans your face for dark spots with a digital camera and then prints tiny dots of tinted skin to hide these spots. Days of getting manicures in salons may also be in the past as ManiMe allows you to upload photos of your nails to their site and they use 3D modeling to laser-cut stickers to fit your nails. The last AI makeup product that’s going to make your beauty routine much easier is lipstick by Perso by LÓreal that’s filled with pigment cartridges. All you have to do is upload a photo of something in a color you like and the Perso mixes the amount of pigments to match it and a small motor pushes the blend through the removable cap.

The Beauty Biolab

To get customized hair and skincare products, all you have to do is send over a sample of your hair or a saliva swab. For your hair, you’ll get information about the texture and thickness which will create a custom shampoo-conditioner and for your skin, you’ll find out about its unique characteristics which is used to create customized regiments for you.

The post Technology’s Changing the Future of the Beauty Industry appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

They say all trends make their way back into pop-culture, but when it comes to technology the general idea is the newer the better. The 2000s have invaded our closets with bucket hats, trench coats, and cargo pants, and the latest item to make a comeback is the Motorola Razr. You heard us right, the Motorola Razr, which was once made popular by Paris Hilton is returning in January 2020 and you can get one for $1,499.

The iconic flip phone will be made into a smartphone, but it will only be available in black. We won’t be able to live out or Legally Blonde all pink everything dreams. In addition to the limited color choice, the Razr will only be available to Verizon users.

What do you think of the latest 2000 trend return? Will you ditch your iPhone for this throwback?

The post Motorola Razr: The Latest 2000 Trend to Make a Comeback appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

YouTube’s new service, YouTube Music, lets its users switch between listening to a song and watching the music video with no interruptions. 

With a single tap within the app, you can now go back and forth between listening to the song and watching its video, and it should always pick up at the exact right spot, with no pause. There’s an option to turn this off if you’d rather stick to the audio instead.

Apparently, YouTube has matched over five million songs to their corresponding videos in order to make this feature work. They had an advantage as the main YouTube platform is the place where most of the music videos are published.

“Imagine listening to a new track by your favorite artist in the YouTube Music app and having the ability to seamlessly switch over to watch the music video — no pauses, no interruptions, just a simple transition that keeps the music flowing. That’s exactly what we’re introducing! Today, YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium subscribers can now make a seamless transition between a song and its music video for uninterrupted listening and watching,” YouTube Music product manager Brandon Bilinski wrote on the company’s blog.

YouTube Music has updated in several other ways recently. The service now offers Offline Mixtape, a feature that enables you to download songs and integrates them with Google Home smart speakers.

The audio streaming app is available in 62 countries to millions of users.

The post YouTube Music Now Lets You Switch Between Song and Video appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has been accurate in the past, Apple should release AirPods with wireless charging in early 2019. Kuo suggested there would be more changes than we expect, such as a new Bluetooth, a new W-series chip, and some design changes.

It’s unclear if Apple would raise the prices, though the new components will be more expensive to make.

This has again raised the question of the AurPower wireless charging mat which Apple talked about in 2017 but has never been released. It’s possible that the idea has been completely abandoned, at least for now.

Kuo is excited about the new AirPods, saying that they are the company’s “most popular accessory ever”.

The post Apple’s New AirPods Might Have Wireless Charging in 2019 appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

The post New Instagram Feature Will Help You Hide Annoying Accounts appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

If you often find yourself tapping on a table with your fingers, this new trend might sound good to you. “Tap” wearable keyboards are becoming a thing. They are made out of a series of connected rings which you wear on your fingers. As you ‘type’, they translate your finger movement into text or predetermined commands.

Tap can also function as a mouse, promising a smooth experience when used with phones and tablets.

How does it work?

Tap is actually similar to chording keyboards. Single keys can have various outputs, instead of being dedicated to only one output like physical keys often are. The product itself is revolutionary because it can turn pretty much any surface into a keyboard. All it takes is that the device is capable of sensing your fingers tapping on a surface, and it’s good to go. The current model offers a battery that can last for eight hours which should be enough for an average workday. When it gets empty, you can simply charge it inside its carrying case.

Would you wear a wearable keyboard?

The post Would You Wear a Wearable Keyboard on Your Fingers? appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

The famous humanoid robot Sophia painted a self-portrait that was later sold at an auction for over $688,000. The artwork is Sophia’s interpretation of her own face and it was created as an NFT (non-fungible token), a digital data unit that’s been popular lately.

The image is titled Sophia Instantiation. It was made in collaboration with artist Andrea Bonaceto, who’s also a partner at blockchain investment company Eterna Capital. She created a colorful portrait of Sophia first, and the robot then painted her own interpretation.

Sophia was developed by Hanson Robotics and has been active since 2016. She’s the first robot with a nationality (Saudi Arabian) and has appeared at many conferences and talk shows in the past.

As NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway says, the fact that she paints was “based completely on decisions she made without any human assistance.” The self-portrait wasn’t the only thing Sophia painted. Her other creations were also sold in batches of 30 for $2,500 to $3,000. She sold the artwork worth over $1 million in total.

The buyer of the most expensive piece, a digital artist known as 888, tweeted “I have goosebumps.” “Me too, we really had a connection,” replied Sophia’s official Twitter account.

The post This Robot’s “Self-Portrait” Was Sold for Almost $700,000 appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

A South Korean startup company named Petpuls developed an innovative product that will help dog owners understand their beloved pets better. Their smart dog collar uses artificial intelligence to “translate” dogs’ emotions based on their barks, effectively telling the owners what their pets are trying to communicate.

The Petpuls collar uses voice recognition technology to monitor the emotions of dogs and understands if they are happy, sad, angry, relaxed, etc. To be able to do this, the company created an algorithm using 10,000 samples from 50 different dog breeds. The dog owners get the data delivered to their smartphone app.

“It comes with an activity tracker and rest tracker. With the activity tracker, it will show how much activity has been done, based on the calorie consumption analysis. At the same time, the rest tracker shows how much rest the dog needs or how tired the dog is,” said Andrew Gil, the company’s director of global marketing.

Their collar sells for around $100 and it’s the perfect gift for a dog owner in your life. We’re sure we’ll see many more products like this in the near future!

The post This Smart Dog Collar Can “Translate” Barks appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Amazon One is a new service from Amazon. It’s a brand new way to pay without contact by scanning your palm. It won’t be used just for payments, but also for many other things that require authentication. For now, it will be set up in some Amazon Go stores before it becomes a common thing everywhere.

The registration is fairly simple and it involves inserting your credit card in the device for the first time and hovering your palm over the device to connect it with the given card. After you sign up, you can use your palm for payments that are easier than ever!

The device works by analyzing several aspects of your palm. Since no two palms are the same, this should be one of the safest modes of contactless payment. Your biometric data will be protected and the Amazon One devices are supposed to have multiple security controls. They won’t store the image of your palm but encrypt it and send it to the cloud to recognize. If you want, you’ll be able to delete the data.

It’s possible to sign up without an Amazon account, you only need a credit card and a phone number. Would you give this payment option a try?

The post The Future of Contactless Payment Comes from Amazon appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Like many things in the world, technology is changing the way we experience beauty. Our makeup and skin-care routines are about to get a lot more high-tech and the changes are coming faster than you’d expect. Here are some beauty gadgets to get excited about.

Sheet Masks

Tons of people use sheet masks, but upgraded versions of sheet masks have a mild electric current that pushes its ingredients deeper into the skin than normal sheet masks. 3D printing will also revolutionize the way we use sheet face masks—soon enough, you will be able to use an in-store app to scan the dimensions of your face to print a hydrogel mask that fits you perfectly. It will even be customized with ingredients based on the different sections of your face.

AI Makeup Artist

You may never have to apply your own foundation again as there’s currently a printer that scans your face for dark spots with a digital camera and then prints tiny dots of tinted skin to hide these spots. Days of getting manicures in salons may also be in the past as ManiMe allows you to upload photos of your nails to their site and they use 3D modeling to laser-cut stickers to fit your nails. The last AI makeup product that’s going to make your beauty routine much easier is lipstick by Perso by LÓreal that’s filled with pigment cartridges. All you have to do is upload a photo of something in a color you like and the Perso mixes the amount of pigments to match it and a small motor pushes the blend through the removable cap.

The Beauty Biolab

To get customized hair and skincare products, all you have to do is send over a sample of your hair or a saliva swab. For your hair, you’ll get information about the texture and thickness which will create a custom shampoo-conditioner and for your skin, you’ll find out about its unique characteristics which is used to create customized regiments for you.

The post Technology’s Changing the Future of the Beauty Industry appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

They say all trends make their way back into pop-culture, but when it comes to technology the general idea is the newer the better. The 2000s have invaded our closets with bucket hats, trench coats, and cargo pants, and the latest item to make a comeback is the Motorola Razr. You heard us right, the Motorola Razr, which was once made popular by Paris Hilton is returning in January 2020 and you can get one for $1,499.

The iconic flip phone will be made into a smartphone, but it will only be available in black. We won’t be able to live out or Legally Blonde all pink everything dreams. In addition to the limited color choice, the Razr will only be available to Verizon users.

What do you think of the latest 2000 trend return? Will you ditch your iPhone for this throwback?

The post Motorola Razr: The Latest 2000 Trend to Make a Comeback appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

YouTube’s new service, YouTube Music, lets its users switch between listening to a song and watching the music video with no interruptions. 

With a single tap within the app, you can now go back and forth between listening to the song and watching its video, and it should always pick up at the exact right spot, with no pause. There’s an option to turn this off if you’d rather stick to the audio instead.

Apparently, YouTube has matched over five million songs to their corresponding videos in order to make this feature work. They had an advantage as the main YouTube platform is the place where most of the music videos are published.

“Imagine listening to a new track by your favorite artist in the YouTube Music app and having the ability to seamlessly switch over to watch the music video — no pauses, no interruptions, just a simple transition that keeps the music flowing. That’s exactly what we’re introducing! Today, YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium subscribers can now make a seamless transition between a song and its music video for uninterrupted listening and watching,” YouTube Music product manager Brandon Bilinski wrote on the company’s blog.

YouTube Music has updated in several other ways recently. The service now offers Offline Mixtape, a feature that enables you to download songs and integrates them with Google Home smart speakers.

The audio streaming app is available in 62 countries to millions of users.

The post YouTube Music Now Lets You Switch Between Song and Video appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has been accurate in the past, Apple should release AirPods with wireless charging in early 2019. Kuo suggested there would be more changes than we expect, such as a new Bluetooth, a new W-series chip, and some design changes.

It’s unclear if Apple would raise the prices, though the new components will be more expensive to make.

This has again raised the question of the AurPower wireless charging mat which Apple talked about in 2017 but has never been released. It’s possible that the idea has been completely abandoned, at least for now.

Kuo is excited about the new AirPods, saying that they are the company’s “most popular accessory ever”.

The post Apple’s New AirPods Might Have Wireless Charging in 2019 appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

The post New Instagram Feature Will Help You Hide Annoying Accounts appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

If you often find yourself tapping on a table with your fingers, this new trend might sound good to you. “Tap” wearable keyboards are becoming a thing. They are made out of a series of connected rings which you wear on your fingers. As you ‘type’, they translate your finger movement into text or predetermined commands.

Tap can also function as a mouse, promising a smooth experience when used with phones and tablets.

How does it work?

Tap is actually similar to chording keyboards. Single keys can have various outputs, instead of being dedicated to only one output like physical keys often are. The product itself is revolutionary because it can turn pretty much any surface into a keyboard. All it takes is that the device is capable of sensing your fingers tapping on a surface, and it’s good to go. The current model offers a battery that can last for eight hours which should be enough for an average workday. When it gets empty, you can simply charge it inside its carrying case.

Would you wear a wearable keyboard?

The post Would You Wear a Wearable Keyboard on Your Fingers? appeared first on toppoptoday.com.