Selective service

If you struggled to find the right Christmas gifts this year, next year’s holiday shopping might be easier thanks to new innovations in artificial intelligence.

San Jose–based startup Ebo box is developing what it calls a “smart gifting” service based on neural networks and deep learning algorithms. The company claims it can help givers find the perfect gift by developing profiles of both the gift giver and the recipient and then combining that with massive amounts of market data on consumer preferences.

Users set up a profile that includes a spending limit and answers to a series of questions about themselves and the recipient. There are obvious questions such as age, sex, location, and interests, but also questions about specific characteristics, such as whether the recipient is introverted or extroverted, logical or creative.

The Ebo box algorithm then looks for connections between the user/recipient profile and a database of 21 million anonymous survey participants. The database includes survey answers to questions related to products and brands participants preferred as well as personal interests—even favorite colors.

“Artificial intelligence can uncover linkages that humans can’t,” Marwan Sledge, Ebo founder and CEO, told computer graphics company Nvidia’s tech blog.

Sledge, who says he created Ebo because of his own frustrations with gift giving, started work on the deep-learning smart gifting algorithm in his spare time while working at Apple. “I am terrible at choosing gifts,” he said, “and I get bored of giving gift cards.”

Users interested in the Ebo box service, which is still in development, can sign up for early access on the company’s website.

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Blood alcohol patch

It’s not always easy to tell if someone has had too much to drink. Breathalyzers can establish blood alcohol levels, but they’re usually administered after an intoxicated person has been behind the wheel, and by then it may be too late.

But a new invention—a disposable patch called ONUSBlue that uses color to indicate blood alcohol level visually—can verify whether its wearer is approaching intoxication and, its developer hopes, allow friends to determine whether someone should be a designated driver. “When you think about it, this simple patch can save a lot of lives by taking blind trust out of the equation,” inventor Anh-Dung Le told tech website New Atlas.

Anh’s new patch detects a wearer’s blood alcohol level through his or her perspiration and glows dark blue when blood alcohol content reaches .04 percent, half the legal limit in the United States.

Anh expects the patch, recently the subject of an Indiegogo fundraising campaign, will retail for between $2 and $3 dollars, but likely will be cheaper in bulk, “and might be different if the patch needs to have other branding or customization imprinted on it for say a music festival.”

Anh’s company, DermaTec, plans to develop patches that can detect the presence of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin, according to New Atlas. —M.C.

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Popcorn pirates

Security researchers have discovered a potentially devastating variant of ransomware—malicious computer code that locks up the files of an infected computer until the victim pays a ransom.

The new malware, called Popcorn Time, offers to waive the one bitcoin ($772.67) ransom and decrypt victims’ files for free if they get two other people to download the ransomware and pay, according to The Guardian. —M.C.