interesting read. in addition to that, the second one is i am fascinated how things are made in engineering, so the best american science in nature in writing talks about how things are made and how we came about, the technology has evolved and set up for short stories made for attention span of a congressmen. next a book by my brother and it talks about fundamentally people are able to make changes and the best way to go about doing that. i'm looking forward to that, this way i can tell my mom i read the book. >> tweet us your answer book tv or post it on our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv. >> c-span created by american

cable company 30 years ago and brought to you by local service or satellite provider. .. about a year into fruition. it started about, well, it

started around president obama's climate data initiative and particularly a call with the united states department of agriculture to promote data openness that the government has to deal with food security and resiliency of the food systems in the united states. so what we've been building is what we call at the moment the farm data dashboard. what we wanted to do was really this data portal for a lot of important data sources about agriculture and production statistics in the united states. so a lot of these -- [inaudible] but in a disparate world that kind of the online ether. and so we wanted to bring that a all together and make it easy for anybody from just an interested public to a busy small farmer all the way to engineers and professional developers to access the data

and start using them in ways that would be powerful for them. so what we've done is we've brought four of the usda's more important data sets together, and we've done this all on microsoft cloud computing platform. a lot of the services that are available within that as well. the first thing that we're doing is we're just allowing raw data downloads. so you can see you can go and simply download the raw data, bring those on to your personal computing platform and do whatever you want with them in true opendata.gov fashion. however, we understand that a lot of people might not want to have to deal with trying to understand them, deal with them. so we've provided a nice user interface as well that'll do dynamic sorting, for instance. here i'm saying i'm going to want to get the area harvested

of corn in the united states, and i'm going to ask it to do that in the state of alabama when this actually comes back as a service -- >> host: and so you can figure out how many acres of corn were planted in alabama? >> guest: yep. >> host: is that that you're going for here? >> guest: yep, exactly. one of the things the service will allow you to do is to be able to pull those data down and look at trend lines over time, for instance, and plot out how things have been looking both in acres harvested, planted and then the yield of different crops, particularly around the six commodity crops in the united states. so i can show you here one of the things that you could do is simply get data here, and we would display a table. let's see if that actually -- that didn't work for us. [laughter] one of the things that i want to highlight here is that one of

the big difficulties in dealing with a lot of these open data initiatives is that these data are from multiple different services, and the way you can access them is widely different across different government agencies. what we wanted to do here is allow people to figure out how to access -- [inaudible] so every time i'm clicking on one of these links, you can see this url here is changing. and that means i can simply copy and paste this link here, and it will bring down data in the exact same manner as what i've done through clicking on this user interface. and once i've done that, i can go offline, for instance, and i can use very -- [inaudible] data science -- [inaudible] so in this instance i'm pulling down all the information from the usda from this web site for the past hundred years on

production statistics with the six main commodity crops in the united states. i'm just doing a few little lines of code here to put the data together, and in one line i'm going to implement something called the -- [inaudible] where i'm going to predict how much corn is going to be planted next year based solely on the other crops harvested this year. so we can look at the production practices that we know happened this year and allow us to give that an inference about what might happen nationally next year. so you can see that in this rough visualization that i've built here where i'm plotting out the trend in the amount of area for each of these six main crops that was harvested in each given year. and here's in my black line you can see that i'm plotting out how much corn was planted in each year. and this red line is the result of this is my prediction. it's the result of my model. and you can see it's doing a

fairly good job. particularly, you know, it's smoothing out a lot of the data jumps and things like that, and it's giving you a jenin sight into what -- a general insight into what might happen next year. the more we pull into this service, the better these models will be able to become. and so as we grow this dashboard, i think the capability of what people will be able to produce by accessing it is only going to increase. >> host: what's the benefit to microsoft to developing this -- >> guest: so the benefit to microsoft is really -- so i'm a researcher, and i'm really interested in understanding how we can make our products better for large consumers. and the interesting thing about dealing with agencies like the department of agriculture is that some of their day -- the data are big, and they're heterogenous. there's a lot of variety in the kinds of data they contain. so to have to think hard and

creatively about how good you built that one-stop solution for people to be able to access and analyze a very large, disparate set of data across the united states, that's really interesting. but solving those problems is what's going to help microsoft's products get better. i'm just happy to be able to work on a project that if we solve those problems, it solves a few challenges for microsoft, but also for the united states. >> host: do you have an agricultural background as well? >> guest: i don't have an agricultural background, although i did graduate from a college of agriculture and life sciences at the university of wisconsin-madison. i'm from northern wisconsin, have lived on farms for a large part of my life while i wasn't an active farmer. you know, a very keen interest in it. as shall be with a background in environmental science, it is impossible to ignore the agricultural sector. >> host: and now joining us --

[inaudible] roseway of microsoft. what's your job? >> guest: i'm a design researcher. we work in areas of effective computing. we are able to detect emotions from your physiological -- [inaudible] and we're able to play those emotions through crystals or things that you wear, or we can notify you of things gown on on -- going on on your body. >> host: how long has this technology been in development? >> guest: i would say for the past three years. >> host: so is i'm wearing this little bit here. >> guest: yes. >> host: are these things pretty primitive as compared to shiny spark over here? >> guest: yeah. it's still fairly early, but paul and i have been able to couple our bands, so he knows when i'm stressed, and i know when he's stressed. so we can actually be notified if our spouse or our parent or

child is in an unusual state. so as you can see, i can see his heart rate -- >> host: and this is your husband? >> guest: no, this is my colleague. >> host: all right. >> guest: right. so this is just the next level of awareness, right? besides calorie tracking and step count, we can also start to monitor those we lo, right -- we love, right, or care about. and because this is being fed through bluetooth, through the cloud, through the phone, i can be across country, he can be on the other side. i might have an ailing parent on the east coast, i live on the west coast. if something's going on with her, i'll know that. >> host: what are we looking at? >> guest: okay. so when i get notified, my band goes off. but in the future we can actually provide that awareness on your body on fabric, right? so i just got buzzed. but this enabled us to get

buzzed remotely as well. so, for instance, i may just turn this on. this is our ui -- >> host: i can hold it. >> guest: yeah. i'm going to power it on. hopefully, the battery hasn't died. fabrics will be intelligent enough to actually receive the data we send it, right? so if i'm stressed out, my fabric can soothe me with heat or vibration, things that i want it to do. so i'm going to turn it on, and hopefully it'll turn on here, and each one of these is a module. so it provides vibration or heat. >> host: what are we looking at when we see these little modules? what's contained in this? >> guest: these are little microprocessors that tell these actuators to vibrate. and there's a master brain behind it. so it sends signals to these, and it turns them on. >> host: not wanting to play. >> guest: it's because it's been on for a few hours, and as soon

as a you guys show up, it always dies. he's getting notified right now. we designed this so that people can basically customize what they need in cases of stress. do they want to be heated up, do they want to be warm, do they want vibration. this has been specifically designed with people with visual impairment, audio impairment where they can use the extra layer of notification to relate them know -- to let hem know that things are going on around them. >> host: what about heartbeat monitors, are those contained as well? >> guest: ing this is actually more of outputs. what you are talking about would be input, and you can send it to that scarf. so if your heart rate goes up, your scarf can turn on and calm you down with heat or vibration, right? so this is just an output for all the things you might be wearing. that's kind of the idea.

>> host: so who's blue and shiny over here. >> guest: okay. so in the north we live in climates that sort of, you know, like seattle that we lack certain sunlight. so seasonal effective disorder is something that's pretty prevalent especially in northern climates, and sir canadian rhythm disorders have been associated to moodiness, overeating and depression. the blue light therapy is actually a therapy that's used with a light box, and you get zapped with blue light. and it gets your brain into thinking it's actually more daylight than it is. we've been able to take the same blue light spectrum at a lower intensity so that it's wearable and portable. instead of being stuck behind a box and looking like a dork, you can look pretty fashionable, right? and it would probably raise the notion of people wearing it more often because you're not stuck behind the box.

so you can actually see it for yourself. so we're just using fiber optics to diffuse the light -- >> host: just wall on one side. >> guest: yeah. and you can wrap yourself in light. so you feel better, you look better. it is how to take really basic technology and start integrating them into new scenarios like this to alleviate a pretty serious problem. >> host: how far away are these from commercial -- >> guest: i would say three to five years. >> host: why that far? >> guest: primarily power consumption. that's always going to be the issue of batteries. but also wear blght and durability. this is not something you throw in the wash, right? and also, if you feel it, it's still a little coarse. so people are sensitive. they want things that are soft. so it's just going to take a few

more years to get is this integrated into soft fibers, and by then the power sources might come from other places like solar or body. >> host: where did the idea come from? >> guest: so i have seasonal effective disorder. i've had to stand behind those light boxes, and i hate it. i can't go anywhere, i can't move, and i'm like why am i tuck behind a box when i can just put it in fabric? it was a personal thing for me. i would love to wear this and not be tethered to a box, so why not? so it was personal. that's where that came from. >> earlier this year "the communicators" visited ces international in las vegas and learned about technological developments worldwide as well as about robots. >> host: well, one of the ex-inner thes here is

alibaba.com, sunny shack rah is with the -- chabra is with the company. what is alibaba.com? >> guest: we work with businesses of all sizes from all over the world, and we help them connect with manufacturers, suppliers, distributers, trading companies from all over the world. >> host: now, hasn't it been described as the google of china? is that a fair description? >> guest: i would say google is more of a search engine. when it comes to business to business, we can be described as business. you simply type in what you're looking for in the search field, and most likely you'll find someone out there who can actually make it. >> host: recently an ipo here this the u.s. >> guest: yes, yes. >> host: so it's a public company now. and do you manufacture anything? do you make anything? >> guest: we do not make anything. we simply help connect buyers with buyers. think of us as a b to b search

engine where businesses of all sizes, whether you're a entrepreneur small business or a large enterprise, you can come and find manufacturers and distributers all over the world. >> host: give us an example of who would use your product and how they would use it. >> guest: absolutely. we're at ces, and some of our suppliers just to give folks a taste of who we are and what we do. one of our suppliers here is a company called ipad. they have an interesting story. it was a person out of new york. he was a journalist, and he had an idea for a product. found alibaba.com, had his product created, and now he's actually selling on alibaba.com. it's a success story. you can come to our platform p find manufacturers, get your idea created and eventually become a supplier on the platform and sell your product back to others who might be looking for something like that. >> host: how many years has alibaba been in existence? >> guest: since 1999. the u.s. is actually the biggest

market for us outside of china. the company started in china back in 1999 founded by jack ma, and u.s. has been the biggest market for us since then. >> host: all right. you do have some products such as life smart. what is it? >> guest: one of our suppliers. ces is a great platform because folks come here looking for the new products that are going to be big in consumer electronics. alibaba doesn't sell anything, but we wanted to bring some of our suppliers here to give attendees and businesses a taste of the type of products that they can find on alibaba and also put a face to the actual supplier they can find. these are folks all over the world selling products that people might be looking for, and that's what we wanted to give them a taste of. life smart has great technology that can essentially make your home a smart home without wires. >> host: so lifesmart is a client of alibaba's. >> guest: a supplier that

anybody can find. >> host: where did mr. ma come up with this idea? >> guest: he had an interesting idea. he actually came to the u.s. back in the '90s, and at the time there wasn't anyone online in china. so he had a simple idea. we need to get suppliers from china who are producing a lot for the u.s. online. how do we do that? wouldn't it be great if we could put the suppliers online so anybody anywhere in the world can find them instead of traveling to china, making calls? we make it easy. essentially are, that was our mission statement back then, making it easy for businesses to do business anywhere in the world, and that's what we've been focused on since day one. >> host: and it seems that year here at ces this is a lot more chinese companies overall exhibiting, have you noticed that as well? >> guest: i have. again, when it comes to china, asia, consumer electronics, a lot of the components are being head in asia. but i think we like to look at it in a different way. the world is becoming a smaller place.

working with somebody in china when you're here in the united states, let's just say las vegas, it's now easier than it ever was. you can get in touch with someone across the world, start doing business them and actually have your products delivered all within a matter of week when that used to be such a daunting task, and companies like alibaba, we're making that a little easier. we're making the sourcing aspect a little bit easier, and that's what we hope to continue to do. >> host: and you're headquartered in the santa clara area. >> guest: our headquarters are this china. >> host: thanks for your time, appreciate it. paolo pirjanian, what is irobot? >> guest: it's the robot company that builds practical robots. we focus on robots for the home, we focus on robots for defense, and recently weeing focus on

collaboration -- we focus on collaboration. >> host: why would somebody need a robot? what would they want a robot for? >> guest: they refer to the three ds, the dirty, dull and dangerous tasks, tasks that humans really don't want to do because it's really tedious and boring. we'd rather spend our time doing more interesting things. so one of the areas we are well known for is rumba, the robotic vacuum cleaner. who wants to push a broom around? i'd rather spend my time with the family and kids rather than cleaning the floors. >> host: everybody, i think, has seen the video of the cats riding around on them. from the consumer point of view, is that the only kind of consumer product you make? you do more business to business? >> guest: we do a number of different floor cleaners. we do pool cleaners. we do gutter cleaners.

essentially, every area in the home where we think we can automate a task that people don't enjoy doing or it's repettive, something you have to keep doing every time. and we will develop the technologies and the solution to deliver on that promise. >> host: so when it comes to defense, what kind of robots and and are you working with the pentagon on this? >> guest: ing so we work with dod and other government agencies. as you witnessed during the iraq war, there was a lot of bombs that were left on the roadside and so on, and you have to send people there -- very scary job -- to go and investigate the package and decimate it. and in those scenarios, you're putting people many harm's way. we are delivering robots that can be remotely controlled to approach the packages, investigate them and, if

necessary, detonate them. worse comes to worse, you have a robot that got exploded, but it saved a life. >> host: michio kaku recently said that robots today are much like retarded cockroaches, his phrase, when it comes to the intelligence factor. do you agree with that? >> guest: i agree that there's still a long way to go. you hear debates about robots taking over the world and becoming more intelligent than humans and so on. from a scientist perspective, i would say that's a very optimistic perspective. i wish we were that smart to build robots that smart. so we are far away from that. but we are making a lot of headway. in the recent years, there's been a confluence of technologies that's enabling us to have robots that are smarter, far away from the smarts of human beings, but smart enough to perform tasks on their own. >> host: five to ten years from now will we be buying robots like we buy mobile phones today?

>> guest: i believe so, and i think robotics will be embedded into our daily lives. not necessarily in the way that's portrayed on science fiction movies and from hollywood. you're not going to have a c3po and an around too dee too. one of the area is the to build safer cars and cars that can drive autonomously which has a massive impact on a society. as a household, you don't need to have one car per household, you can have one for the whole family that takes care of taking you back and forth to work and take the kids to school and come back and park itself. that will depopulate the roadways from cars. so that's one example of how robotics will influence our lives in the coming decades. >> host: is that one of the areas, dr. pirjanian, that

you're working on? are you working with the automotive industry? >> guest: we are not, but a lot of the robots we are doing, for instance, for the defense and security business are using technologies that are very similar. so we have robots that can autonomously drive to a desired location, perform a task and come back. in our telepresence robot that we have deployed in hospitals to allow neurologists to remotely interact with patients that come in with a stroke, the robot will drive to the patient on its own so the doctor is not waisting their time -- wasting their time trying to joystick the robot through hallways and so on. the robot will go to the patient and call back the doctor to get on task and start interacting with the patient. >> host: that's one area of health care that you're working in, where else? >> guest: that is exclusively the area in health care right now. and then the same technology we use that allows doctors to be

where they want anytime they want, we also use for collaboration for fortune 500 businesses that have multiple sites across the nation or globally that allow you to walk the production line in china or my office is this pasadena, our headquarters is in boston. i spend a lot of my time interacting with people in boston and collaborating, giving presentations, attending meetings all enabled by our robot. >> host: so why is the company heldquarterred in new bedford, massachusetts? >> guest: because our founder and co-founders are all from mit. and they shared a common vision which was about robotics, and they started in venture capital terms you would say way, way too early, 25 years ago, to fulfill

a dream of putting a robot in every home. >> host: in those 25 years, what's been the advancements? that you've seen? >> guest: significant advancements. i think 25 years ago it was a dream to think of, robotics. robot provide enough value for the price you have to pay for it, right? so at that time a lot of the robotics you saw were experiments from labs, from university labs, from mixer it -- mit, from stanford a.i. lab and so on. and those were really expensive robots, tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars of costs, and they performed simple, mundane tasks very slowly. now we have robots like rumba that are in millions of homes and perform a daily chore every single day. we are cleaning a lot of acreage every day autonomously, and it's

done at a price point that the consumer is willing to pay for, and they benefit from it. >> host: here at ces, the irobot booth, what are you showing? >> guest: this year we don't have any major announcements of new products, so we have a booth that isen inviting people by -- that is inviting people by invitation to have private meetings, and that's what we're focused on this year. >> host: are you in the drone business? >> guest: we are on the ground robot business. there is a lot of ground to cover, no pun intended, and we have decided to focus on that. there's a lot of companies that are going after the aerial vehicle and drone market, as you put it, and we think that is a well covered space by others. we are focused on ground robots. >> host: how'd you get into this business? >> guest: myself? >> host: right. >> guest: when i was figuring out what to do with my life, i was going from lab to lab -- i was brought up in denmark.

so i was going from lab to lab -- >> host: and what was your training? >> guest: i was computer scientist. >> host: okay. >> guest: trying to figure out what to do for my master's. and then i ran into our robotics lab at my university in denmark and met my professor, henry christensen. he's a professor at georgia tech. and you could say it was love at first sight. when i saw the robot he was talking about, i said this is what i want to do. and i got into robotics that way. >> host: paolo pirjanian, irobot executive vice president are, chief technology officer. this is "the communicators" on c-span. >> "the communicators" airs every week saturday at 6:30 p.m. on c-span and again on monday on c-span2 at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.. if you'd like to see some of our previous programs, go to c-span.org/communicators.

>> c-span, created by america's cable companies 35 years ago and brought to you as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. >> here's a look at some of the current best selling nonfiction books according to the new york timings. topping the list, thunder and deceit by mark levin where the syndicated radio talk show host calls on young people to resist what he argues is an ever-growing centralized government. , the a-nehisi coats looks at the history and current state of black america in "between the world and me." david mccullough on the birth of flight in the wright brothers followed by the investigation of end-of-life care in "being mortal." a look at "the new york times" nonfiction bestsellers list continues with "dead wake," eric