How do we demystify technology buzzwords?

Nowadays we get bombarded with buzzwords all the time: “AI is now making art”, “thanks to Big Data is now possible to explore the human genome”, “Pokemon Go becomes the future of entertainment thanks to Augmented Reality”.

But, what do these words mean, in simple language?

Kano’s mission is empower anyone, anywhere to make and play with technology. We do this by opening it up, demystifying and democratizing it, so more people can create, not just consume it.

We make fun kits, coding challenges and simple story books to help. But now, we’ve also taken some of those buzzwords people ask us about and turned them into beautifully illustrated one-shot cards.

So without further ado, here are the first five of the hottest technology buzzwords, Kano-style.

AI

Artificial Intelligence — A computer program that has been taught to think for Itself. A.I is being used in self-driving cars, computers that play chess and to make art

Curious about AI? Check out how Driverless Cars work or this AI that makes art.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality — A.R adds live filters to the real world. Catching Pokémon in the park, finding train stations in a city or putting cat ears on your selfie.

Augmented Reality is at the heart of 2016 running-around-the-streets-crazinness, Pokemon Go. Some stores also use it to help you better understand and play with their products.

Big Data

Big Data — Billions of people make decisions online, most of these decisions are recorded, and are used to find patterns and trends in behaviour.

You interact with Big Data almost daily, as it powers recommendation engines (like Amazon’s “you might be interested in…” or Netflix “More like…”) when shopping online or watching videos. Big Data is also being applied to our cities,making them smarter.

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing — The Cloud is made of servers all over the world, connected by the internet. It keeps your files safe in case your computer breaks.

Cloud Computing helps the Internet run stable. It helps keeps files safe, but also stores programs and apps like Photoshop so you don’t need a Disc. It becomes essential when tens of thousands of people want to buy tickets for their favorite band online, at the very same time.

Cookies

Cookies — When you visit a website, a little text file is saved to your computer. This is a cookie! It helps the website know if you’ve been there before

You see that little “Warning: this site contains cookies” message pop up everywhere because they are mandatory. They save your information so you don’t have to keep telling websites who you are. They are not edible, fact.

We’ve turned these gorgeous illustrations into a FREE poster you can download, and print.

Come back next week for five more buzzwords.

Kano’s mission is to empower anyone, anywhere to make and play with technology. Learn more about how we do this with our computer and coding kits.