Posted by Rodrigo Carraresi, Developer Relations Regional Lead, Brazil
Since 2018, the Google for Startups Accelerator Brazil (previously Google Developers Launchpad Accelerator) has contributed to the growth of more than 30 Brazilian startups, such as EasyCrédito, Liv Up, and SmarttBot. With the help of renowned mentors and experts from Google and other leading organizations across the globe, we’re helping companies overcome technical challenges such as Cloud, AI, and machine learning.
Today, we’re proud to announce the ten startups selected for the first cohort of 2020, which will be held entirely on Google Hangouts due to the COVID-19 crisis:
The three-month Google for Startups Accelerator offers assistance and tools to help startups that already have a funded product, but still face particular technical obstacles. This version of the program, which kicked off on April 13, was purposefully designed as an online version of the traditional Google for Startups Accelerator model and the selected companies will take advantage of the following:
Google for Startups Accelerator is just one of many Google for Startups’ initiatives in Brazil, which also include Campus São Paulo, support programs such as Residency and Startup Zone, open events such as Presents, and ongoing training workshops by the Startup School. Brazil has a strong startup ecosystem, a thriving hub of technology and innovation, and we are proud to help these founders grow and scale businesses that will change the world on a global scale.
Stay tuned throughout the course of the program on Google for Startups social channels to learn key takeaways, advice, and learnings from the latest Brazilian Accelerator program.
Posted by Zhicheng Wang and Genzhi Ye, MediaPipe team
In many computer vision applications, a crucial building block is to establish reliable correspondences between different views of an object or scene, forming the foundation for approaches like template matching, image retrieval and structure from motion. Correspondences are usually computed by extracting distinctive view-invariant features such as SIFT or ORB from images. The ability to reliably establish such correspondences enables applications like image stitching to create panoramas or template matching for object recognition in videos (see Figure 1).
Today, we are announcing KNIFT (Keypoint Neural Invariant Feature Transform), a general purpose local feature descriptor similar to SIFT or ORB. Likewise, KNIFT is also a compact vector representation of local image patches that is invariant to uniform scaling, orientation, and illumination changes. However unlike SIFT or ORB, which were engineered with heuristics, KNIFT is an embedding learned directly from a large number of corresponding local patches extracted from nearby video frames. This data driven approach implicitly encodes complex, real-world spatial transformations and lighting changes in the embedding. As a result, the KNIFT feature descriptor appears to be more robust, not only to affine distortions, but to some degree of perspective distortions as well. We are releasing an implementation of KNIFT in MediaPipe and a KNIFT-based template matching demo in the next section to get you started.
Posted by Wesley Chun (@wescpy), Developer Advocate, Google Cloud
In the previous episode of our new Google Cloud for Student Developers video series, we introduced G Suite REST APIs, showing how to enhance your applications by integrating with Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. However, not all developers prefer the lower-level style of programming requiring the use of HTTP, OAuth2, and processing the request-response cycle of API usage. Building apps that access Google technologies is open to everyone at any level, not just advanced software engineers.
Enhancing career readiness of non-engineering majors helps make our services more inclusive and helps democratize API functionality to a broader audience. For the budding data scientist, business analyst, DevOps staff, or other technical professionals who don't code every day as part of their profession, Google Apps Script was made just for you. Rather than thinking about development stacks, HTTP, or authorization, you access Google APIs with objects.
This video blends a standard "Hello World" example with various use cases where Apps Script shines, including cases of automation, add-ons that extend the functionality of G Suite editors like Docs, Sheets, and Slides, accessing other Google or online services, and custom functions for Google Sheets—the ability to add new spreadsheet functions.
One featured example demonstrates the power to reach multiple Google technologies in an expressive way: lots of work, not much code. What may surprise readers is that this entire app, written by a colleague years ago, is comprised of just 4 lines of code:
function sendMap() { var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet(); var address = sheet.getRange('A1').getValue(); var map = Maps.newStaticMap().addMarker(address); GmailApp.sendEmail('friend@example.com', 'Map', 'See below.', {attachments:[map]}); }
Apps Script shields its users from the complexities of authorization and "API service endpoints." Developers only need an object to interface with a service; in this case, SpreadsheetApp to access Google Sheets, and similarly, Maps for Google Maps plus GmailApp for Gmail. Viewers can build this sample line-by-line with its corresponding codelab (a self-paced, hands-on tutorial). This example helps student (and professional) developers...
SpreadsheetApp
Maps
GmailApp
For further exploration, check out this video as well as this one which introduces Apps Script and presents the same code sample with more details. (Note the second video emails the map's link, but the app has been updated to attach it instead; the code has been updated everywhere else.) You may also access the code at its open source repository. If that's not enough, learn about other ways you can use Apps Script from its video library. Finally, stay tuned for the next pair of episodes which will cover full sample apps, one with G Suite REST APIs, and another with Apps Script.
We look forward to seeing what you build with Google Cloud.
Last year we introduced the developer preview of the Local Home SDK, a suite of local technologies to enhance your smart home integration with Google Assistant by adding local fulfillment. Since then, we've been hard at work incorporating your feedback and getting the experience ready for production. Starting today, we're exiting developer preview and allowing you to submit local fulfillment apps along with your smart home Action through the Actions console using Local Home SDK v1.0.
Adding local fulfillment for your smart home Action.
As part of the Smart Home platform, local fulfillment extends your smart home Action and routes commands to devices through the local network, benefitting users with reduced latency and higher reliability. If a local path cannot be successfully established, commands fall back to your cloud fulfillment.
The Local Home SDK v1.0 supports discovery of local devices over Wi-Fi using the mDNS, UDP, or UPnP protocols. Once a local path is established, apps can send commands to devices using TCP, UDP, or HTTP. For more details on the API changes in SDK v1.0, check out the changelog.
New multi-scan configuration UI.
The Local Home SDK configuration page in the Actions console now accepts JavaScript bundles for your local fulfillment app. When you are ready to publish your app, upload your JavaScript files to the console and submit your Action. For more details on submitting your smart home Action for review, see the smart home launch guide.
Upload your local fulfillment app.
We've updated the test suite for smart home to support local fulfillment as well. Be sure to self-test your local fulfillment before submitting your updated smart home Action for review. You must provide updated test suite results with your certification request when you submit.
To learn more about enhancing your smart home Actions with local fulfillment, check out the Introduction to Local Home SDK and the developer guide. Build your first local fulfillment app with the codelab, and go deeper with the samples and API reference.
We want to hear from you, so continue sharing your feedback with us through the issue tracker, and engage with other smart home developers in the /r/GoogleAssistantDev community. Follow @ActionsOnGoogle on Twitter for more of our team's updates, and tweet using #AoGDevs to share what you’re working on. We can’t wait to see what you build!
Calling all student developers: If you’re someone who wants to lead, is passionate about technology, loves problem-solving, and is driven to give back to your community, then Developer Student Clubs has a home for you. Interest forms for the upcoming 2020-2021 academic year are now available. Ready to dive in? Get started at goo.gle/dsc-leads.
Want to know more? Check out these details below.
What are Developer Student Clubs?
Developer Student Clubs (DSC) are university based community groups for students interested in Google developer technologies. With programs that meet in person and online, students from all undergraduate and graduate programs with an interest in growing as a developer are welcome. By joining a DSC, students grow their knowledge in a peer-to-peer learning environment and build solutions for local businesses and their community.
Why should I join?
- Grow your skills as a developer with training content from Google.
- Think of your own project, then lead a team of your peers to scale it.
- Build prototypes and solutions for local problems.
- Participate in a global developer competition.
- Receive access to select Google events and conferences.
- Gain valuable experience
Is there a Developer Student Club near me?
Developer Student Clubs are now in 68+ countries with 860+ groups. Find a club near you or learn how to start your own, here.
When do I need to submit the interest form?
You may express interest through the form until May 15th, 11:59pm PST. Get started here.
Make sure to learn more about our program criteria.
Our DSC Leads are working on meaningful projects around the world. Watch this video of how one lead worked to protect her community from dangerous floods in Indonesia. Similarly, read this story of how another lead helped modernize healthcare in Uganda.
We’re looking forward to welcoming a new group of leads to Developer Student Clubs. Have a friend who you think is a good fit? Pass this article along. Wishing all developer students the best on the path towards building great products and community.
*Developer Student Clubs are student-led independent organizations, and their presence does not indicate a relationship between Google and the students' universities.
At Google Pay, we’re always looking for ways to make things simple, helpful, and accessible for everyone, whether that’s consumers or developers. Today, we’re introducing a new resource for developers that does just that — the Business Console for Google Pay. The Business Console is a new tool that streamlines the way you integrate Google Pay into your apps and websites.
Many of you have already added support for Google Pay. In the process, you asked questions like:
We created the Business Console for Google Pay in response to your feedback. With the new console, you’ll be able to integrate Google Pay into your apps and websites more seamlessly, discover resources, get support at different stages throughout your integration, and keep track of your progress along the way.
And this is only the beginning. As we add new features, the Business Console will be your go-to place to manage all your new and existing integrations with Google Pay, see how your integrations perform over time, and add support for other business- and developer-focused products.
The new Business Console lets you simplify your Google Pay integrations by guiding you during the submission for approval and helping you keep track of progress.
Getting started is easy. Just head to pay.google.com/business/console. If you’ve already integrated with Google Pay, log in with your account to see your existing integrations or create new ones. And if you haven’t integrated with Google Pay yet, simply create your business profile, build an integration, and submit it for approval directly from the console.
Some businesses, system integrators, and developers have already started using the Business Console as part of our early-access program. “The new Google Pay Business Console helped us understand the integration requirements, and the examples made it easy to implement the Google Pay API into our website,” Gymondo GmbH CTO Christopher Weiss said. The Business Console also helped Weiss get their integration approved quickly. “Shortly after,” Weiss said, “we started seeing purchases coming from our customers paying with Google Pay."
We hope the new console makes your integration process go just as smoothly, and we’d love to hear about your experience. You can share any feedback from the menu within the console. We’re looking forward to learning how we can make Google Pay even more helpful in the future.
