This special 80minute session has been designed to reduce stress, promote relaxation, ease pain and muscle tension and rejuvenate the body during the year of the earth dog. A hot or cold towel infused with mandarin orange or tangerine oil and a brew of Chinese red dates, honey and goji berries welcomes guests.

Guests will be encouraged to connect with their core through a massage with Flourish Oil, which contains a blend of lemongrass, cardamom and coriander, to deliver an elongating, full body treatment, together with hot, healing stones, and a soothing abdominal massage, all designed to soften and release tension and revive the mind.

Find more details at http://www.MandarinOriental.com.

The brand has long been dedicated to sun safety through research, product innovation, and public education campaigns, as well as by funding significant research with the Melanoma Research Alliance to prevent certain skin cancers. In 2016, La Roche-Posay, L’Or?al’s leading dermatological skincare brand, launched the first-ever stretchable skin sensor to monitor UV exposure, My UV Patch. Since the technology’s debut, La Roche-Posay has distributed more than one million patches to consumers in 37 countries including Thailand free of charge. Consumer studies show that My UV Patch had a positive impact on the sun safety behaviour of consumers – with 34 percent applying sunscreen more often and 37 percent trying to stay in the shade more frequently.

To further encourage consumers to change their sun safety behaviour, the new UV Sense is smaller, and offers longer wear and real-time data. The first battery-free wearable electronic sensor to measure individual UV exposure, UV Sense can store up to three months of data and show trends of exposure over time with instant updates. The new wearable is less than two millimetres thick, nine mm in diameter and designed to be worn on the thumbnail. By putting this technology on the thumbnail – which receives optimal sunlight – consumers can increase wear time from several days with My UV Patch to several weeks with UV Sense. The sensor can be reapplied to the nail with additional adhesives, which come in the packaging.

UV Sense has an accompanying mobile app, available on both iOS and Android, which translates and transfers data from the sensor using Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled technology. The app delivers consumer-friendly information detailing when the wearer should be mindful of UV exposure. Data is included in a profile within the app that outlines a user’s exposure levels. Sun-safety habits – like spending time in the shade or reapplying sunscreen – are encouraged with facts about sun exposure and additional tips for protection.

“The technology within UV Sense is groundbreaking and has so much potential to impact the future of technology and wearables,” said Guive Balooch, Global Vice President of L’Or?al’s Research and Innovation Technology Incubator.

“Armed with research and consumer insights from the original My UV Patch, we set out to create something that blends problem-solving technology with human-centered design, offering real-time data and longer wear in a discreet product that fits any lifestyle.”

For the design of UV Sense, L’Or?al has collaborated with world-renowned designer Yves Behar. “Design and technology are inextricably linked, and as products become more personalised to individuals, both elements are integral to providing people with seamless experiences,” said Behar, the founder of fuseproject. “By working with L’Or?al, we are able to pair deep expertise in beauty tech with an effective design that enhances consumers’ wellbeing without distracting from their everyday lives.”

Both UV Sense and My UV Patch draw from research L’Or?al conducted in conjunction with MC10, Inc., a leading wearable technology company, and professor John Rogers at Northwestern University, through his portfolio of intellectual property (IP) and innovation around flexible, stretchable electronics.

UV Sense will be available on a limited basis in the U.S. for the 2018 summer season with a global launch following in 2019. In 2018, La Roche-Posay will also make available a new limited-edition of the award-winning My UV Patch designed by Yves Behar.

Yamdagni healed herself from an illness and chronic pain that had confined her to bed. Doctors, medications and everything else she tried failed to bring relief. She has since helped hundreds and hundreds of others break free from their pain effectively. Interestingly, her first official client was a doctor!

Shalini’s work has been featured on international magazines, newspapers, online news channels and on television too.

The founder of Magical Pain Free Living, Shalini coaches clients across the globe, helping them gain awareness of the root causes and break free from their pain.

The talk will cover three key components: “How to step out of your comfort zone”, “Be a game changer”, and “Make an impact on you and your team in 2018”.

The talk runs from noon to 2 and tickets are Bt650 before January 23 and Bt750 at the door, both including lunch, available at Eventbrite.com.

Noppol Toochinda, Ofo Thailand’s general manager, notes that the service has broadened its reach considerably since last September 2017, expanding the shared bike service to leading universities nationwide, Chiang Mai Uni among them. The company organised the CMU Bike Challenge 2017 in November, offering all cyclists a free bike trial.

Chiang Mai is one of the top cities in Thailand and bikes are quite popular here. We will start off in Nimmanhaemin area, because it is one of the trendiest spots in the city. This area is filled with boutique hotels, chic shops, cafes and restaurants and we are collaborating with Somtam Krok Nimman, Room No 7 and Cainito Homemade Restaurant to celebrate the first bike sharing service in Chiang Mai and offering our riders exclusive discounts, starting from mid-January on.”

The new launch of ofo in Chiang Mai marks another success for shared bikes service expansion in Thailand, which took only a few months to grow dramatically nationwide, launchin in Phuket, KhonKaen, Bangkok, Pattani, Phitsanulok, PathumThani and Chiang Mai.

Before using the bikes, you need to download the Ofo app to your mobile phone. The system will charge for Bt99 as deposit fee the first time of use (It will be returned in case of permanent abolition) And for the next time, the users will be charged Bt5 for half hour of travel which can be paid easily through the application.

Available year-round at many of its spas globally, the treatment has been designed to reduce stress, promote relaxation, and ease pain and muscle tension.

Guests are welcomed with hot or cold towels infused with mandarin orange or tangerine oil, both of which symbolise good tidings. They are then invited to enjoy a welcome drink of Chinese red dates, honey and goji berries, which help to destress and encourage sleep. Traditional sweet treats popular during Chinese New Year festivities will be available to enjoy in the spa’s relaxation area, including sweetened tangerine, coconut and ginger from the customary “Tray of Togetherness”.

The one hour, 20-minute treatment is inspired by the elongating, grounding yoga pose of the downward facing dog, and is designed to bring about a feeling of contentment, restoration and happiness. Guests will be encouraged to connect with their core and feel grounded.

The treatment utilizes bespoke Flourish Oil, which contains a blend of lemongrass, cardamom and coriander to deliver an elongating, full body treatment, together with hot, healing stones, and a soothing abdominal massage –all designed to soften and release tension and revive the mind.

Finally, guests are offered a sweet plum tea, and on leaving the spa will receive a traditional Chinese lai see lucky red packet, which includes a further spa treat for 2018.

The Year of the Earth Dog Experience is available at many Mandarin Oriental spas worldwide including in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Macau, Sanya, Singapore, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo in Asia. In Europe, it is available at Barcelona, Marrakech, Milan, Paris, Prague and in the US at Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami and Washington until the end of the Earth Dog year on  February 4, 2019. Book online at each respective hotel at www.MandarinOriental.com.

THE ROBOT called Forpheus does more than play a mean game of table tennis. It can read body language to gauge its opponent’s ability and offer advice and encouragement.

“It will try to understand your mood and your playing ability and predict a bit about your next shot,” says Keith Kersten of Japan-based Omron Automation, which developed Forpheus to showcase its technology.

“We don’t sell ping-pong robots, but we are using Forpheus to show how technology works with people,” he adds.

Forpheus was among several devices shown at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, which highlighted how robots can become more humanlike by acquiring “emotional intelligence” and empathy.

Although this specialisation is still emerging, the notion of robotic empathy appeared to be a strong theme at the huge gathering of technology professionals in Las Vegas.

Honda, the Japanese auto giant, launched a new robotics programme called “Empower, Experience, Empathy”, including its new 3E-A18 robot, which “shows compassion to humans with a variety of facial expressions”, according to a statement.

The Omron Forpheus robot thrashes a mere human at table tennis during the Las Vegas convention./AFP

Although empathy and emotional intelligence don’t necessarily require a humanoid form, some robot-makers have been working on form as well as function.

“We’re been working very hard to have an emotional robot,” says Jean-Michel Mourier of French-based Blue Frog Robotics, which makes the companion and social robot called Buddy, set to be released later this year.

“He has a complex brain. He will ask for a caress or get mad if you poke him in the eye.”

Other robots, such as Qihan Technology’s Sanbot and SoftBank Robotics’ Pepper, are being “humanised” by teaching them to read and react to people’s emotional states.

Pepper is “capable of interpreting a smile, a frown, your tone of voice, as well as the lexical field you use and non-verbal language such as the angle of your head”, according to SoftBank.

Developing emotional intelligence in robots is a difficult task, melding the use of computer “vision” to interpret objects and people and creating software that can respond accordingly.

“Empathy is the goal – the robot is putting itself in the shoes of the human, and that’s about as hard as it gets,” says Patrick Moorhead, a technology analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy.

“It’s not just about technology – it’s about psychology and trust.”

Choose your pal – a Honda 3EA18, left, of a 3C18, both concept robots for now./AFP

Moorhead says this technology is still in the early stages, but holds promise in some areas, noting that there is strong interest in Japan amid a lack of caretakers for the elderly population.

“In some ways it can be a bit creepy if you’re crying and the robot is trying to console you,” he says.

“If you have no friends, the next best thing is a friend robot, and introverts might feel more comfortable talking to a robot.”

One CES exhibitor offers a promise of going further than the current devices by developing an “emotion chip” that allows robots to process emotions in a manner similar to humans.

“There’s been a lot of research on detecting human emotions. We do the opposite. We synthesise emotions for the machine,” says Patrick Levy-Rosenthal, founder of New York-based Emoshape, which is producing its chip for partners in gaming, virtual and augmented reality and other sectors.

It could be used to power a humanoid robot or other devices. For example, an e-reader could better understand a text to infuse more emotion in storytelling.

As for Forpheus, Kersten says the robot’s ability to help people improve their table-tennis skills could have numerous applications for sports, businesses and more.

“You could sense how people are feeling, if they are attentive or in a good state to drive.”

Another key application could be in healthcare, he says. “In an elderly-patient facility, you can determine if someone is in distress and needs help.”

The blurb on the front cover says “old-school thriller”, and even though it actually refers to an earlier book by the same author, there’s no point trying to top that capsule description of Frank Hurst’s writing – now again on view in his latest novel “The Chiang Mai Assignment”.

The action is set at the dawn of the 1990s – for some interesting reasons, as it turns out – but in certain ways, this could easily be the 1950s or ’60s, deep in the Cold War. This is a tale of British policing, and while MI6 is relegated to a caper on the side lines, and Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise is centre stage in the sleuthing, there’s very much a spy-versus-spy tingle to the plot.

It comes naturally to Hurst, a former drugs-intelligence agent whose own exotic travels and 35 years of experience with Customs, Scotland Yard and the Foreign Office ensure a level of authenticity that armchair detective writers can’t hope to match.

Hurst was part of the globe-spanning operation that put the late Howard “Mr Nice” Marks behind bars. Having only started writing when he retired in 2011, he’s on the hunt again.

Mike Rawlin is Hurst’s alter ego and his Bond, but at the outset, Rawlin has been frozen out of the Cold War, recalled from the field after letting his emotions get the better of him and fumbling his previous assignment.

Back in London (more precisely Coventry, figuratively speaking), he’s pushing paper clips and lunching alone at a pub none of his colleagues frequent, the better to avoid their derision. Rawlin has all but given up hope of ever returning to Thailand, or being given any other plum mission, for that matter.

But then the Customs boys get word that Bart Vanderpool – the Dutch drugs kingpin Rawlin was tracking in Phuket when the case went pear-shaped two years earlier – has resurfaced in the far Thai North and might be shipping a massive quantity of heroin to Europe.

Rawlin hasn’t lost all of his friends and support in the service, he knows Thailand intimately and he has an established network of contacts there, so the chiefs set aside their doubts, pluck him from his desk and put him on a plane.

“The Chiang Mai Assignment” is the second novel in a planned Golden Triangle Trilogy that began with “The Postmistress of Nong Khai”, which was set even earlier, in the early 1980s.

Nong Khai is briefly revisited here, as is Phuket, but only as stopovers on the way to the Golden Triangle. There’s an encounter at the Eastern & Oriental in Penang, and Bangkok gets a look in, with a few trips to Don Meuang Airport (no Suvarnabhumi back then) and to Klong Prem Prison to pump an old adversary for information.

Rawlin has trusted help on the Royal Thai Police and Australian Federal Police, but none at the US Drug Enforcement Agency. The latchkey to the book is the ebb and flow of trust, not only among the competing nationalities, but also within Britain’s own law-enforcement network. “Things aren’t what they seem,” as the promotional materials sardonically put it.

MI6, for its part, aims to assist – or does it? – through the mock theft of a Vermeer painting from a London gallery, intended as a lure for the art-loving drug smuggler.

As was the case in “Postmistress”, the romance angle here swoons chiefly around Lek, a beautiful former Thai Airways stewardess, now a travel agent, who was once on Vanderpool’s arm until Rawlin turned her into an informant.

Setting the yarn in the early 1990s puts it squarely on the far shore, all but forgotten now, of the cell-phone age. Readers young and old will spot this right away, and wonder (from different perspectives) that it took so much time back then to communicate across distances.

But Hurst also chose this period, he told me, because that’s when “opium and heroin production in the Golden Triangle was a genuine international problem, much more than nowadays”. With US President Ronald Reagan’s “war on drugs” underway, it was “a very challenging and exciting period for law enforcement”.

Hurst has contrived an engaging, believable tale filled with well-crafted characters. The dialogue is marred by a shyness over contractions, and there are other curiosities – renderings like “tuc tuc” in place of “tuk-tuk” and a penchant for unnecessary italicisation. But there’s also some fine writing, as in this evocative passage:

“A woman screamed from inside the house, a glass shattered, and there were shouts from some of the policemen who were clearly rising to their task. The brutal noises from within continued for a few minutes and then ceased suddenly. An eerie silence fell like a soft blanket over the house and Rawlin could hear the forest birds again; their song sounded jubilant and joyous – laughing, almost. For the first time, his ears picked up the soft lapping sound of the nearby lake and the pungent fragrance of white jasmine invaded his nostrils.”

The most remarkable aspect of “Assignment” is that it’s fundamentally a police procedural – the villain is identified and tracked down step by step, and there’s nothing else along the lines of car chases, cliffside fisticuffs or gory shoot-outs, not even a speedboat explosion of the type with which the first novel in the trilogy culminated.

And yet, despite lacking the usual tropes of a thriller, the story is innately compelling, a drama of considerable suspense. As surely as the drug lord must be caught, the pages demand to be turned. This is a cool, calm, collected thriller of a different order, something akin to 007 without the Hollywood-scale pyrotechnics – yet with the canny Ian Fleming-style plot-building intact.

It will be interesting to see where Hurst takes his hero in the closing episode, when he says the trilogy will finally emerge into the modern world, mobile phones and all. After that, he adds, he’d like to try different genres, including short stories about Thailand. Those too are awaited with anticipation.

The Chiang Mai Assignment

By Frank Hurst

Published by Books Mango, 2017

Available at Amazon.com, US$15 (Bt481)

VIRTUAL AIDES battled to rule “smart homes” on the Monday, the eve of the official opening of the Consumer Electronics show gadget gala here.

Samsung, LG Electronics, Panasonic and others touted a future in which homes, cars and pockets brim with technology that collaborates to make lives easier.

Google and Amazon are key players in the trend, with their rival Assistant and Alexa voice-commanded virtual aides being woven deeper into consumer electronics and vehicles. Samsung meanwhile is playing catch-up with its Bixby assistant.

“The biggest theme is the fight for the connected home between Google and Amazon,” Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy said during a day of back-to-back CES press briefings.

“The notion that there is this new layer that can replace apps and operating systems means the stakes are high.”

LG’s CLOi personal assistant robot with a prototype robotic lawnmower is displayed at the LG booth during CES 2018 at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. /AFP

If voice-commanded assistants become the new norm for interacting with computers and the internet, being the virtual aide of choice could be a powerful and profitable position.

“Competition is heating up for the smart assistant ecosystem, and the question is who is going to be the smart assistant of choice in 2018,” said Gartner analyst Brian Blau.

Apple and Google have big leads, since their rival digital assistants are already on millions of smartphones and computers, according to Blau.

“That is why Amazon is being so aggressive; they need millions of more endpoints for Alexa in people’s hands,” Blau said.

“The loser, if any, is Cortana, because nobody is talking about them,” he added, referring to Microsoft’s digital assistant.

But, Moorhead countered, Microsoft is likely playing to its strength by angling to be the dominant digital assistant in workplaces and Cortana is already on some half a billion computers powered by Windows 10 software.

Consumer electronics titan LG proclaimed this year a “tipping point” for smart homes during a press event that featured an ignoble on-stage fail.

A cute, table-top smart hub called CLOi went awry, with the voice-commanded, small snow-person shaped device quickly ignoring an LG executive.

“CLOi doesn’t like me evidently,” quipped LG US marketing vice president David VanderWaal.

“Even robots have bad days.”

A Panasonic Smart Speaker with Google Assistant, left, is displayed with a 1931 radio receiver at the Panasonic booth during CES 2018. /AFP

Such moments are playfully referred to as “the curse of the live demo” in Silicon Valley.

LG is developing technology designed to enable its appliances, televisions and other devices adapt to users and collaborate to handle tasks.

The AI platform is “open” to utilising software made by other companies, LG chief technology officer IP Park said.

“The world has become just too complex for just any single company to insist on a proprietary, closed solution,” Park said.

LG collaborators include Google and Alexa creator Amazon, according to the South Korea-based consumer electronics titan.

Google Assistant is being integrated into LG products including televisions, headphones and smart speakers.

“Our goal at Google is to help people get things done in a natural, seamless way,” Google Assistant vice president of engineering Scott Huffman said.

Interacting with computers by speaking has proven a hit, and the ability of virtual aids to converse with people is expected to improve quickly, according to researchers from the Consumer Technology Association behind the annual CES gathering.

A LG ThinQ speaker with Google Assistant will be available in the “coming months,” according to Huffman.

LG’s vision for its artificial intelligence platform includes enabling appliances, cars, air-conditioners and other “everyday” devices to adapt to users’ individual preferences as well as collaborate on tasks.

“Our products will learn from users to provide intelligent services, not the other way around,” Park said.

“You won’t have to study instruction manuals any more.”

Samsung Electronics used its press event to extol the South Korean company’s strategy of making its broad array of offerings connected and enhancing them with digital brains of Bixby virtual assistant.

“Televisions, refrigerators and more will understand you and your preferences, and tailor an experience that is right for you,” said Samsung global consumer electronics president HS Kim.

A new SmartThings application to be released by mid-year will consolidate command of Samsung devices and be a “remote control for your connected life,” Kim said.

Samsung is investing in improving Bixby so that it “intuitively understands you and figures out what you need before you ask,” according to Kim.

Samsung televisions sold in the US will have Bixby to respond to spoken requests or control other home devices.

Bixby was also being built into a “family hub” smart system in Samsung refrigerators with large touch-screens on doors.

Panasonic announcements included that it is working with Amazon to build Alexa smart assistant into “infotainment” systems it sells to carmakers.

“Alexa can help customers with thousands of things in the car – navigation, music, audiobooks and more,” said Alexa automotive vice president Ned Curic.

“This is a big step toward bringing Alexa to customers wherever they might need her, whether they’re at home or on-the-go.”

Panasonic also collaborates with Google to build Assistant smarts into some of its products.

The show features all new material, plus Peters’ signature interactions with the audience. Peters says, “I love getting to know my audience. It’s a collaboration between us.” Peters last toured Asia in 2015 – 2016 to sold out houses, including in Bangkok. “I’ve been building the new act in clubs across the States over the past year and I’m very happy with it.”

The comedian is enjoying his return to live touring after taking time off to film his smash hit Netflix series “The Indian Detective”. The series also stars Anupam Kher, William Shatner, Christina Cole and Mishqah Parthiephal.

Peters also appeared in the still unreleased films, “The Clapper with Ed Helms” with Amanda Seyfried and Tracy Morgan as well as “Supercon” with Ryan Kwanten and John Malkovich, and “Public Schooled” with Judy Greer.

The Deported World Tour will also feature one of David Letterman’s favourite comics, the legendary raconteur of weird stories, comedian Jake Johannsen.

The Asia dates follow a run through Australia and New Zealand. His last tour travelled to 26 countries with over 200 performances and more than 300,000 fans in attendance.

Ticket prices start from Bt2,000, and go on sale at 10 am on January 20 at all ThaiTicketMajor outlets and online at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

The “ideas festival” Bangkok Edge returns for its second year on January 20 and 21, offering a wide variety of educational and entertaining activities.

The inaugural event drew 20,000 Thais and foreigners, and this year’s festival – with its theme  “Explore, Create, Inspire” – promises to be even busier.

“Attendance last year was way beyond our expectations,” says festival director MR Narisa Chakrabongse. “We’d prepared 4,000 entry stickers, and they were all gone within three hours the first day. That success gave us a tremendous energy boost!”

The hope this year, once again, is “that everyone comes away having explored different ideas, created something new, or been inspired to make changes in their life”, Narisa says.

“Above all, though, I want people to have a good time!”

The event will occupy the same three venues – Museum Siam, the Chakrabongse Villas and the Rajini School.

Rames Promyen, director general of Museum Siam, which is officially called the National Discovery Museum Institute, says it will give festival guests a deeper understanding of three far more traditional festivals – Loy Krathong, Songkran and the Boon Bang Fai rocket festival.

“We’ll also have the Mommy Puppet troupe putting on a hand-puppet show, presenting a fairytale about families and the rearing of children to demonstrate how puppets can teach lessons from folk tales,” Rames says.

The show will be presented in Thai at 4pm both days and in English at 5pm.

“Museum Siam will also be extending its operating hours from the usual 10-to-6 and stay open until midnight both days,” Rames adds.

SeaWrite Award-winning author Weeraporn Nitiprapa, who’s just published “Rocher”, will give a talk about his inspirations. He was a hit with both Thais and foreigners at last year’s festival.

ML Pratinthip Nakornthap, manager of the Rajini School, says she was “amazed” last year to see all the talks and workshops at the school featuring famous writers and speakers so well attended. “We had to keep making more room for the people who kept coming. So this year we’ve prepared two additional rooms.”

There’ll be speakers this year on smart cities, waste reduction, preserving cultural heritage, the future of transportation, and international relations. Local topics will include Thai history, literature, the LGBT movement and environmental conservation.

Three embassies have lined up speakers. Portugal has Alfonso Cruz discussing “Thinking about Identity and Culture – Connections and Contradictions”, Australia has Omar Musa on “The Power of Siam Poetry” and “Hip-hop and Our Combustible Society”, and Canada has Marina Mahathir on “Women’s Rights in Asia: Progression or Regression?”

Other speakers are historian Chris Baker, journalist Christina Lamb, Jaguar design director Julian Thomson, novelists Christopher G Moore, Colin Cotterill and Lawrence Osborne, “near-zero-waste” blogger Madeleine Recknagel and British photographer Michael Freeman.

More than 50 activities have been organised for the weekend, all free of charge. As well as the talks and workshops, there will be exhibitions, book launches, children’s events and film screenings, plus food and crafts markets.

Musicians lined up for concerts are Chanudom, Yellow Fang, Rasmee Isan Soul, Siplor, Yena and Narisa’s famous son Chulachak “Hugo” Chakrabongse.

“I’ll be playing both nights,” Hugo says. “On January 20 I’ll be playing the Thai songs I did with my original band Siplor – with Rasmee Isan Soul, Siplor and Yena – and on January 21 it will be all English songs, with Yellow Fang and Chanudom.”

Bangkok Edge is a great chance to get a glimpse inside the Chakrabongse family homestead. Prince Chakrabongse built the Italian-style villa in 1908 and for decades it’s been the private residence of his granddaughter, Narisa.

There will be four tours a day, one of them conducted in English, for people who buy a Bangkok Edge “chill pass”.

One of the big concerns this year is getting attendees to reduce waste by reusing and recycling as much material as they can. They’ll be reminded that Thailand is one of the world’s worst offenders when it comes to plastic waste and are encouraged to bring their own food containers and utensils.

Food and retail stalls at the festival are required to use only packaging that’s environmentally friendly.

How to get an Edge

– Bangkok Edge takes place at Museum Siam, the Chakrabongse Villas and the Rajini School on January 20 and 21. It’s free to attend.

– Learn more at (02) 622 1617, http://www.BangkokEdge.com and http://www.Facebook.com/bangkokedge.