Futuristic NEWS

Levitation Concept Bike Will Power Your Gadgets

Tanya — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:00:38 +0000

Dezien, a design outfit, has created an interesting concept bicycle dubbed Levitation that charges the cyclist’s mobile devices. Its main feature is an integrated chargeable battery, which can be used to charge gadgets by way of the integrated USB 3.0 ports, located under a removable handlebar grip through which you would presumably have to feed your cables if charging when riding. The bike also has an integrated Wi-Fi hotspot for your devices o connect to. The LED display shows the battery’s charge level, and lighting to the front and rear built into the bicycle’s frame.
Via:gizmag.com

Eco-Friendly Street Sign Powered By Solar Energy

Tanya — Fri, 17 May 2013 08:00:23 +0000

The Glass Sign is an eco-friendly street sign designed by Aibek Almasov for small pedestrian streets and roads. It is powered by solar energy and is activated by touching the pole within 5 seconds of pressing. The smart sign can distinguish between the daytime and nighttime: at night Its display glows red, in the morning it is being charged by the solar panel. The glowing of the crossing signal lasts for about 15 seconds depending on the road being crossed.
Via:psfk.com

A Robot Arm Can Move And Detect Objects By Touch (+VIDEO)

Tanya — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:00:55 +0000

The Georgia Tech group has recently presented a robot arm that moves and finds objects by touch. According to the designers it can reach into a cluttered environment and use “touch,” along with computer vision, to do various tasks. The team believes such robots will move freely in human environments and the technology might be employed in hospital or rehabilitation settings for patient care (e.g. to help in patient and elder care or rescue missions during emergencies). The robot arm can reach and then use software to control its sense of touch, making it possible to find specific objects in a collection or area. The arm seems to mimic human behavior, thus the robot was able to bend, compress and slide objects. The robot also has an artificial “skin” that can sense pressure or touch. The robot’s arms were designed by Meka Robotics; the software is based on the Willow Garage Robot Operating System (ROS), which is meant to be shared freely. Hoping that other robot makers will improve and advance the robot, the team have made their software open source as well, and shared instructions to make and adapt low-cost robot skin,. You can watch a robot arm wiping the mouth of a disabled man and adjusting a blanket in a video below.
Via:nytimes.com

McDonald’s And Fuel Station Project For The Georgian Vacation Resort

Tanya — Thu, 16 May 2013 08:00:20 +0000

Georgian architect Giorgi Khmaladze is now finishing building a new fuel station and McDonald’s premises in the city of Batumi, Georgia, located at the seaside. Unlike traditional model used for most McDonald’s outlets worldwide, Khmaladze has designed a futuristic giant wave-like structure with angular glass exterior, featuring a series of glass panels which reflect the above skies and surrounding environment. The whole curtain wall is covered with low E coated glass panels and besides there is a ceramic frit pattern on glazing which is custom designed in such a way that it will transmit less direct sunlight to the dining spaces when the sun rises to higher altitudes during warm months. The fuel station is separated from the fast food space; at the same time part of the structure overhangs the station, providing shelter to motorists and ensuring that the facility stays out of sight to the overhead restaurant. McDonald’s has a separate ground floor entrance located at the opposite end of the building and overlooking the surrounding ponds which wrap around the location. The kitchen and service facilities are all located in the central ground section, with side staircases leading to the elevated dining areas, offering the guests a view across the urban landscape, with added seating situated parallel to a spacious open-air garden, a 600 square meter (6458 sq. ft) green roof system.
Via:gizmag.com

Light Bulbs Serve As Interactive Tour Guides (+VIDEO)

Tanya — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:00:51 +0000

The LED light bulbs, ByteLight, manufactured by Solais Lighting, are screwed into a socket like a standard light bulb, though are used as interactive tour guides at the Boston’s Museum of Science. They send location-specific information to visitors by interacting with their device’s camera. Visitors of the museum who download the app can receive media and information, such as details about the displays, a map, interactive games, activities and special offers. The museum can also receive foot traffic data from the light bulbs, enabling them to see which of their exhibits are the most popular. Designers claim that the system could in future become a non-invasive, smart way to interact with customers in a location-specific and real-time way.
Via:psfk.com

Peter Diamandis Reports About The Technological Innovation Over The Next 30 Years (+VIDEO)

Tanya — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:00:41 +0000

The opening session of the first annual CIO Journal conference was marked by the statement of Peter Diamandis, a well-known entrepreneur and X Prize Foundation creator, on the development of technologies. He founded the X Prize Foundation to offer an incentive for people to develop beneficial technologies. The rapid pace of technological innovation almost insures massive social changes. One of them is the price of technology which is gradually falling, so will the cost of living, enabling the world to meet the basic needs of all people within 30 years. Mr. Diamandis claims that the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest people may increase, but the definition of poverty will keep changing: 99% of the poorest people in the U.S. have amenities that the wealthiest people of 100 years ago couldn’t imagine. Most corporations aren’t ready for massive technological disruption, so it’s of great importance to listen to younger people with “crazy” ideas and to find ways to acquire entrepreneurial companies without snuffing out the things that make them innovative. Mr. Diamandis emphasized eight areas:

Biotech
Now, even some high school students have displayed an ability to sequence DNA, and life is looking less like a fixed condition, and more like a manufacturing process.

Computational Systems.
Computers that can model almost anything are now cheaply and widely available to more and more people, who can lease them by the minute via cloud-based services.

Networks and Sensors.
Wireless devices embedded in objects are gathering huge amounts of data that can be modeled by people who are able to “ask the right questions.”

Artificial Intelligence
AI is creating a new generation of personal digital assistants that are so smart they can tell people where they need to go next, without even being asked or prompted.

Robotics
The robots are coming and they are going to be everywhere, performing all sorts of tasks that people once did. “Jobs are going from China to India to robots,” Mr. Diamandis said.

Digital Manufacturing.
Lego won’t be a toy manufacturer. It will be an information company that creates blueprints for toys. Consumers will produce the parts at home using 3D printers that spit out Legos—along with all sorts of other objects, Mr. Diamandis.

Medical Technology
Modern medicine is information technology, according to Mr. Diamandis, who predicted that small mobile devices will allow people to self-diagnose their own health conditions.

Nano Technology
Nano technology won’t stop with warmer and lighter pairs of shoes. Mr. Diamandis envisions high strength, light weight fabrics that enable personal air flight.
Via:blogs.wsj.com

Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think

Advance Of The Shopper Tracking Technology: Facedeals (+VIDEO)

Tanya — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:00:46 +0000

Aimed at improving shopping experience, retailers are trying to make more money and gain insight into shoppers’ behavior with the help of advanced technologies. Facebook and other social check-in tools are a great mechanism for businesses to grant discounts to loyal customers. Facedeals is a concept design that proposes using Facebook data and facial recognition technology to see when participants enter a store or the other location, automatically ‘checking-in’ for them. Facial recognition cameras are installed at local businesses; they recognize your face when you pass by, then check you in at the location; at the same time your smartphone notifies you of a customized deal based on your Like history. The check-in app must be authorized via your Facebook account. With your help, the app verifies your most recent photo tags, using those to map the physical appearance of your face. The retailer then personalizes deal offers based on what the person has liked on Facebook, which the person receives simply by walking in the door. On the one hand these technologies enhance the shopping experience, but on the other hand they help you, as a consumer, to find, what you want quicker and cheaper.
Via: iq.intel.com

Smart Truck Rental System in 2030

Tanya — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:00:43 +0000

Yuhan Zhang has designed an intelligent rental truck system for mega cities in 2030. This is a BeeHive Concept, a solution to the present-day problems, such as traffic jam, energy waste, parking lot, etc. The designer is of opinion that in future city transportation system will be divided into 3 different tracks: overground highway for high speed cars, ground for pedestrians and low speed vehicles and uderground for subway. The concept presupposes creating the so-called Hive centers along the highway, bases for parking and dispatching Bee trucks, aimed at saving parking space in the city. A Bee truck is an automated driving rental truck hired by customers through internet. It uses electric hub motor wheel drive system, with facial expression on its skin and electric magnetic connector on top of it. A Bee truck will feature two runing modes: a high-speed mode that moves fast below the highway with electric magnetic power and a low-speed mode, where the truck can land on the ground to deliver cargo to the customer. After a mission is accomplished, the vehicle will look for the nearest hive center to rest awaiting the next task.
Via:tuvie.com

A Virtual, Controllable Avatar Expresses A Range Of Real Emotions (+VIDEO)

Tanya — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:00:57 +0000

The voice controlled virtual assistant is not just science fiction anymore. The team of researchers at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom has designed Zoe, a virtual “talking head” that can express human emotions. You need to enter a line of text and choose from a range of sliders that determine emotion, then click the enter key and Zoe will reads the message in the tone you wish. The avatar features currently only six basic emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, tenderness and neutrality, as well as changeable pitch, speed and depth settings, though combinations of these levels allow for a huge range of emotions. The size of the program (just ten megabytes) enables to include the technology into future devices like smartphones and tablets. The template surrounding the technology also has the potential to allow for people to upload their own faces and voices in just a few seconds. The team is now amending the realism of the technology and exploring real world applications, such as sending friends a digital “face message” that conveys the emotion you’re feeling, or helping autistic and deaf children to understand emotions and learn to lip-read.
Via:gizmag.com

Robot Helps Cosmetic Surgeons To Fight Down Baldness (+VIDEO)

Tanya — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:00:03 +0000

Restoration Robotics has designed the hair transplant robot that punches individual hair follicles out of dense areas, leaving enough behind to keep those areas looking suitably hirsute. Before punching hair, Artas makes precision 3-D images of the scalp and measures the angle and depth of each hair follicle. The hair follicles are then re-implanted in balding or bare areas and connect back up with the blood supply and continue growing hairs as before. This is the the first ever FDA-approved robot of this kind, which is currently being used by about 20 cosmetic surgeons in the U.S. and Canada, the UK and will soon be available in Korea.
Via:popsci.com