TTT-Tech #3 - Enhanced humanity

Innovative, Interesting, or Important

There’s too much technology news to keep up with every day.

Now you don’t have to. We’ll do it for you.

Our mission here is to highlight only the developments that have long-term implications, instead of instantly-obsolete news like an updated app. We’ll spotlight only the innovations that we believe will still be important a year from now.

Top Topic: Enhanced humanity

This week’s digest is all about additions, enhancements, and fixes for our own bodies. Kinda strange how this surplus of people-improving news occurred all-but simultaneously, but when it comes to good news like this, hey, we’ll take it!

This weeks headlines:

1.     Climb like a gecko

2.     Quadriplegic’s mind moves robot hand; amputee controls arms

3.     New knees printed in 3D; full limb prototyped

4.     Electronic skin detects pressure direction

5.     Phone accessory helps diagnose ear infection

6.     Mouth guard lessens athletic brain injuries

7.     Faster DNA diagnosis may fight viral outbreaks

8.     “Printing”… livers?

9.     Intel improves Hawking’s communication

10.    Mouse is controlled by eye movement; Menu tracks eyes

1. Climb like a gecko

You might think “Spider-man” as you look at the photo, but “Gecko-man” would be more accurate.

Scientists at Stanford have duplicated the adhesive used by the lizards to climb just about anywhere. They layered a silicone material in microscopic wedges. The synthetic pads “only work on smooth surfaces like plastic and glass,” Gizmodo reports.

There’s more information here from the Royal Society.

2. Quadriplegic’s mind moves robot hand; amputee controls arms

A quadriplegic woman moved the hand of a robot arm with her thoughts.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh say the “first time 10-dimension brain control of a prosthetic device” shows they can interpret signals from neurons with a simple computer algorithm “to generate sophisticated, fluid movements that allow the user to interact with the environment.”

Kurzweil AI has more on the story here.

Also: a man controlled two prosthetic arms wired into his nerves by doctors at Johns Hopkins. Popular Science reports on “the first shoulder-level double amputee to wear and control two complex, mind-controlled prosthetic limbs.”

A video on the research is here.

3. New knees printed in 3D; full limb prototyped

Okay, not the whole knee: Researchers at Columbia devised a way to replace the meniscus protective lining. They used a 3D-printed implant “infused with human growth factors that prompt the body to regenerate the lining on its own,” Science Daily reports. “The therapy, successfully tested in sheep, could provide the first effective and long-lasting repair of damaged menisci, which occur in millions of Americans each year and can lead to debilitating arthritis.” Here is the full article.

Also: a man is prototyping a 3D printed custom prosthetic leg. The artificial limb will be made from laser-printed titanium, and may be cheaper as well as more durable, functional, and comfortable than traditional models, BoingBoing reports. The full story is here.

4. Electronic skin detects pressure direction

New “electronic skin” detect and differentiates various stimuli including the direction of the pressure.

Researchers in Korea developed the stretchable technology that could have applications in prosthetic limbs, robotics, wearable electronics, remote surgery, and biomedical devices, Kurzweil AI reports. The artificial skin is constructed of piezo-resistive microdome arrays made from carbon nanotubes and silicone. It’s design is “inspired by the interlocked epidermal layers in human skin.”

Here is the full story.

5. Phone accessory helps diagnose ear infection

When an otoscope attaches to a smartphone and works with an app to send video to a medical professional for diagnosis, it “provides a number of benefits,” Popular Science reports, “such as not having to tote a crying child to the doctor's office… developer CellScope aims to have a response for you within two hours.”

The Oto Home costs $79, and each remote consultation costs $49.

“The smartphone is proving to be a huge platform for medical devices,” PopSci adds. “Equipment that used to cost hundreds or thousands of dollars can now be had for a fraction of that cost, in a form that is easy to transport, and in a package that also makes it easy for remote medicine. Not only does that potentially enable diagnoses without even leaving home, but it also brings quality medical care to places that a doctor may not be able to reach easily.”

The full story is here.

6. Mouth guard may lessen athletic brain injuries

It doesn’t actually prevent impact, but by tracking when injury may have occurred, a new device may prompt proper medical treatment that could alleviate long-term damage. The mouth guard worn by football players and other athletes has data sensors that relay real-time head impact data for concussion management protocols, says developer I1 Biometrics.

The Kirkland, Wash company’s mouth guard “accurately measure the linear and rotational accelerations of head impacts during sports and training activities,” it says. The company’s site is here.

7.Faster DNA diagnosis may fight viral outbreaks

With a new technique, researchers in genetic health can accurately genotype extremely small and challenging samples with minimal hands-on time.

Fluidigm says its Juno is a “first-of-its-kind revolution.” Engadget reports that in less than three hours the device can “extract DNA, pre-amplify it (to make the genes readable) and test it all in a single step, saving testers from coming back multiple times to move things along.”

What might be the result? “The easier and faster it is to study genomes, the quicker doctors can diagnose patients and respond to viral outbreaks,” Fluidigm says.

The full story is here.

8. “Printing”… livers?

Bio-printing developer Organovo is selling liver. It’s not a meat-packer, however: instead the mini-livers are made in-house with a 3D printing system, and will be sold to pharmaceutical companies, where the artificial organs will be used to test experimental drugs.

Organovo is also working on larger patches of organ-specific tissue, “which doctors could potentially graft onto ailing organs in the future,” Popular Science reports.

9. Intel improves Hawking’s communication

Intel Labs developed new technology that helps physicist Stephen Hawking communicate better.

Hawking is nearly paralyzed from a motor neuron disease, which affects more than 3 million people worldwide. The new Assistive Context Aware Toolkit was developed with input from Hawking, USA Today reports. It has a cheek-mounted sensor, an infrared switch attached to eyeglasses, and a predictive typing app. Hawking says “the development of this system has the potential to improve the lives of disabled people around the world.”

The customizable platform will be available to researchers and developers in January, the newspaper notes. The full story is here.

10. Mouse is controlled by eye movement; Menu tracks eyes

An “eye mouse” will allow people with disabilities to edit documents or browse the Web “through simple eye movement,” Samsung claims.

The EyeCan technology is the first of its kind, “as it does not require users to wear any device, such as glasses,” Samsung says. “Instead, a single-unit sits below the monitor, and works by wirelessly calibrating with the user's eye.” There are 18 commands that “solely require eye movement and blinking, and each command can be selected by looking directly at the relevant icon and blinking once.”

The design will be offered open source, the company adds. There’s more information here.

Also: It’s not reading your mind. Not quite.

A new menu system tracks your eye movement to discern what food you are most interested in.

It’s now being tested at a Pizza Hut, the UK’s Telegraph reports, where it can figure out what pizza toppings you want. It’s built by Tobii Technology of Sweden. You can see a video demonstration here.

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TTT-Tech #2 - Connected, flying, and wearable devices

Innovative, Interesting, or Important

There’s plenty of technology news every day — too much, actually.

Our mission here is to highlight only the developments that have long-term implications, promise or portent.

Instead of instantly-obsolete news like an updated piece of software, a gadget’s slightly improved new version, or another round of investing, we’ll spotlight only the innovations that we believe will still be important a year from now.

This weeks headlines

1. Robots on Patrol

2. Intel, Samsung back faster wireless connectivity

3. No hands required: type your thoughts

4. Police test networked guns

5. Motorola will find your phone

6. Pilot-free helicopter fights wildfires

7. Wearable dialysis device for kidney patients

8. Wrist-mounted flying camera wins Intel prize money

9. Would Dick Tracy wear this?

10. Flying cam captures 4k

Top Topic: Connectivity

While three of the devices we cover this week are wearable, and three more items are about things that fly — this week Connectivity is our focus.

Thanks to mobile phones, we’re used to being in touch with each other all the time — and as we’ve got a connected computer in our pocket, we’re also in touch at all times with all the data (and fluff) on the Internet.

It’s not just phones: most of your devices will eventually be linked in some way, and with newly developed faster data transfer rates (item #2). Our watches will talk with our phones (#5), and because it’s America, hey, even guns will be networked (#4). In the labs, connectivity innovations can even read our thoughts (#3).

And #1: Of course, robots will talk to each other — security guard robots, that is:

1. Robots on Patrol

Relax, they’re not Daleks. Not quite. But they are actual robot security guards, ready to go on the job today.

Developed by startup Knightscope in Mountain View, California, the K5 is five feet tall, and weighs 300 pounds — packed with five cameras, four microphones, sensors, GPS and laser ranging navigation equipment, electric motors, and a 24-hour battery.

The robots are designed to detect anomalous behavior such as someone walking through a building at night. With WiFi and a computer, they communicate among themselves, and with a central security operator or facility.
The company says it’s mission is to “Cut Crime by 50 percent.”
MIT Technology Review has the full story.

2. Intel, Samsung back faster wireless connectivity

Silicon Valley startup Keyssa is providing a faster alternative to cords and wireless networks for phones, laptops, and home appliances.

The low-power wireless connectors use extreme high-frequency radio bands to transfer up to 6 gigabits of data per second when two devices are held about a centimeter apart. (WiFi’s top speed is 1.35 gigabits per second; for USB it’s 5 gps.) That’s fast enough to transfer a 1080p movie within five seconds.

Keyssa’s backers include Intel Capital and Samsung.

Businessweek has the full story here.

3. No hands required: type your thoughts

Have you always wanted to control a computer with your mind? A brain injury researcher is developing a computer-brain interface system that allows paralyzed people to communicate through a computer screen.

At the Wadsworth Center, a reporter for The Verge donned “a hat resembling a swim cap that records brain activity thanks to a set of gel-filled electrodes embedded in the fabric.” Then by simply concentrating, the reporter could pick out one letter at a time (although it took 15 seconds each time). Nonetheless: “I typed text on a computer with my thoughts.”

Long-term, it may “help people who suffer from advanced forms of paralysis maintain the will to live.”

Here’s the full story.

4. Police test networked guns

A wireless chip in the handle of a gun will automatically alert police headquarters whenever an officer in the field draws a firearm — and where exactly the officer is.

California-based YardArm technology works with regular firearm and transmits data over a standard cell phone network. The company is also working to track the direction in which a gun is pointing. The data can be fed to a police dispatch system or viewed on a smartphone, MIT Technology Review reports here.

“YardArm is holding tests to hone the tracking accuracy with police departments in Santa Cruz, California, and Carrollton, Texas. The technology has been tested at firing ranges, but not during active police duty.”

5. Motorola will find your phone

The Keylink itself may not prove to be a lasting device, but it exemplifies simple device connectivity:

Motorola says “if your phone decides to play hide and seek, press a button on Keylink to make the phone ring up to 100 feet away. Or if your keys get a similar idea, you can use the Motorola Connect App (on the phone) to make Keylink ring.”

The battery lasts about a year. The $25 device is compatible with Android and iOS devices.

There’s more information here.

6. Pilot-free helicopter fights wildfires

The K-Max self-flying helicopter flew thousands of missions in Afghanistan between 2011 and 2014. Now Lockheed Martin is showing the Forest Service and other agencies how it can fight wildfires longer than human pilots can tolerate, and in more dangerous conditions.

The chopper can carry up to 6,000 pounds of cargo — such as an enormous bucket with more than 2,800 gallons of water — to make for  “a self-flying, fire-fighting chopper.”

Lockheed also offers a five-pound quadcopter with an infrared camera to locate fires.

Wired has the full story here.

7. Wearable dialysis device for kidney patients

A new miniature portable device could improve the lives of tens of thousands of people who most otherwise now regularly visit kidney dialysis centers.

The 10-pound machine can cleanse and monitor blood constantly, with minimal effort — and the FDA has put the device on a fast-track program, reports i09.

A doctor explains the device in this video.

And from my own photography coverage at PMA Newsline:

8. Wrist-mounted flying camera wins Intel prize money

The Nixie got a lot of coverage this Summer when it debuted on Kickstarter — and it took another step closer to commercial feasibility with an award from Intel.

Basically a wearable quadcopter drone that rests on your wrist before launching to take your selfie, the Nixie won the $500,000 grand prize in Intel's “Make It Wearable” competition, Phy.org reports.

There’s a demo video here.

9. Would Dick Tracy wear this?

Dutch designer Hermen van den Burg says his smartwatch combines robust functionality with avant-garde design in a convenient user-friendly device — at an affordable price. 

The Burg 12 Smartwatch has full phone functionality to make and receive calls with the watch’s speakerphone, using an included SIM card, or paired with either an iPhone or Android phone.

It has a camera built in, because these days, what doesn’t? However, we couldn’t find any indication what resolution it captured, so we’d guess it’s in the low megapixels.

The watch has a 1.5-inch touchscreen with a 240 x 240 resolution. It also provides music and video playback, a calendar, contact list, voice recording — and a low-res camera.

It’s $199 at Walmart and on Amazon.

10. Flying cam captures 4k

Remember when remote-controlled planes and copters only had VGA-res cameras? It wasn’t that long ago, was it? Today handheld- and tripod-mounted 4k cameras are hardly mainstream — but DJI’s latest drone has a 12-megapixel sensor for full 4k video, as well as Raw stills.

“Everything is better in 4K,” DJI says, which “gives you the power to make every shot a masterpiece.”

The Inspire 1 remote-controlled quadcopter has a 3-axis gimble on the bottom to stabilize the camera, the lens of which has 9 elements in 9 groups including an aspherical element, the company says, “producing extreme clarity.”

Also, a real-time feed from the Inspire 1’s camera is displayed in 720p HD on your mobile device, “giving you a perfect view of what the camera sees to frame your shots.” DJI says its Lightbridge technology can now transmit the video feed from up to 2km away.

The cam-copter will sell for $2,899.

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TTT-Tech #1 - 3D printing on the Moon, Obama backs Neutrality

There’s a lot of technology news every day — too much. 
Our mission here is to highlight only the announcements that have long-term implications, promise or portent.
We won't cover instantly-obsolete news like an updated piece of software or the new gadget that barely improves on the previous one...
Instead we’ll only spotlight the innovations that will still be important a year from now — and even further into the future.

This weeks headlines:

1. “Print” a base on the Moon

2. 3D-printed guns made practical with new bullet design

3. President Obama backs Net Neutrality

4. Internet service sent via Satellite

5. Robot scallops to swim in your blood

6. Amazon’s Echo listens to you

7. Spark adds WiFi to any device for $19

8. Samsung: 16 simultaneous sensors capture a gigapixel of 3D

9. Sharp captures color in darkness

10. Lytro licenses its Light Field 

Top Topic

“3D Printing’ is perhaps the first widely-accepted moniker that’s inherently inaccurate: printing has always meant putting ink on paper, but when the basic mechanism for an inkjet printer was adapted to spray out more durable materials, layer atop layer to make a solid item, a new form of manufacturing was named after an old method for marking paper.

Nonetheless, 3D printing promises to drastically change our society, reducing costs of goods, and allowing for entirely new ‘products — like a moon base!

In our regular installments we won’t have multiple items on one topic, but a lot happened in 3D manufacturing this week:

1. “Print” a base on the Moon

The European Space Agency is working on robot rover that could construct a habitat — after they launch it to the moon. It will even use moon dust as the base material.

• I’m almost 50, and I’d resigned myself to never living that childhood dream of going to the moon — But between ready-to-inhabit bases like this and improved travel such as the designs from Space X, it might happen yet!

The ESA’s video demo is here.

CNet has more on the story here.

2. 3D-printed guns made practical with new bullet design

The first designs for 3D-printed handguns were shocking — but at least they couldn’t repeatedly fire standard ammunition.

(The plastic used in 3D printing can’t withstand the gunpowder explosion that drives a standard bullet.)
So much for that limitation: someone thought it would be a swell idea to arm ’em with "improved" ammo: a new steel shell design encases the boom better, so the gun can fire repeated rounds.

Wired has the story here.

  

3. President Obama backs Net Neutrality

“An open Internet is essential to the American economy, and increasingly to our very way of life,” says US President Barack Obama. “By lowering the cost of launching a new idea, igniting new political movements, and bringing communities closer together, it has been one of the most significant democratizing influences the world has ever known.”

Thankfully, the President is now backing “Net neutrality” and states the obvious — that doing so is an inherently conservative position… that is, not changing what has been working so well. “Net neutrality has been built into the fabric of the Internet since its creation,” Obama says, “but it is also a principle that we cannot take for granted. We cannot allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas.”

The new White House webpage on the subject is here.

  

4. Internet service sent via Satellite

Elon Musk’s Next Mission is to provide Internet service via satellite, the Wall Street Journal reports: “SpaceX, Tesla founder explores venture to make lighter, cheaper satellites.”

The billionaire entrepreneur is considering building a factory to make satellites that could be launched by his rocket startup, the Journal adds here. The plan potentially calls for launching 700 satellites, each weighing less than 250 pounds. 

5. Robot scallops to swim in your blood

There’s long been talk about robotic micro devices that might someday move about inside your body, repairing damage and delivering medications. But what mechanism might they use for mobility?

They’ll swim like a scallop, according to a proposal published here in the journal Nature. If you’re less academically oriented, Engadget has a short piece on it here — or you can simply watch the video.

  

6. Amazon’s Echo listens to you

It looks like a big ol’ tube, but the Echo is actually an audio-controlled system that uses seven microphones with “beam-forming technology” and enhanced noise cancellation to “hear you ask a question even while it's playing music,” Amazon says.

The $199 gadget always on and listening, the company threatens says — “just ask for information, music, news, weather, and more. Echo begins working as soon as it hears you say the wake word” which is “Alexa” for some reason.

And watch out: Amazon adds that its Echo is “always getting smarter” as its “brain is in the cloud… so it continually learns and adds more functionality over time. The more you use Echo, the more it adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.”

Maybe they’ll add an analyst AI, providing therapy services as well… Since marketing depends on learning more about a potential customer’s desires, that’d be one insidiousImeaninsightful way to do it. “I’m listening…”

There’s more information here.

  

7. Spark adds WiFi to any device for $19

How much cost will connectivity now add to a device? Not much: Developer Spark bills its Photon as a $19 kit for building your own WiFi enabled products.

The “postage stamp-sized hackable module” is even FCC-certified “so that it can be used safely around the world.”

There’s more information here.

  

8. Samsung: 16 simultaneous sensors capture a gigapixel of 3D

At a developer conference, Samsung debuted a virtual reality-capturing camera

“Project Beyond” will take 3D footage for use with the company’s Gear VR headset. The puck-sized gadget has 16 high-definition cameras, and captures a gigapixel per second. Samsung says it uses “stereoscopic interleaved capture and 3D-aware stitching technology to capture the scene just like the human eye, but in a form factor that is extremely compact.”

Samsung adds that the system is not yet a product, but they are showing “the first operational version of the device, and just a taste of what the final system we are working on will be capable of.”

There’s a demonstration video here.

CNet and TechCrunch have more.

9. Sharp captures color in darkness

Night vision is known for its green-tinged monochromatic capture. Now Sharp says it can record color in total darkness, with it’s latest security camera.

Sharp says it’s “developed the industry's first infrared color night-vision camera capable of capturing color video in pitch-dark environments.” Yep, that’s zero lux, the company claims.

This camera’s infrared color night-vision CCD*3 was developed jointly by Sharp and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. It uses near-infrared light for illumination to enable color images to be captured in total darkness (zero lux)—a first for the industry, Sharp says.

10. Lytro licenses its Light Field 

Imaging science developer Lytro is letting the cat out of the bag  its light field tech out of the camera with a development kit it will license for $20 grand a pop.

The company says its platform will “empower innovative organizations to harness the full potential of the light field in their industries… beyond the domain of photography.”

Lytro cites holography, microscopy, architecture, security “and many more imaging fields” that can “reimagine and customize their products. For instance, customers could optimize a special lens for analyzing soil samples, or customize a thermal sensor to analyze individuals’ heat signatures.”

Among the first licensees named are NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a startup named General Sensing that is developing night vision.



This Week's Post sponsored by:

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Enjoy the natural beauty of Yosemite National Park in the Fall and Winter — free from the crowds of Summer!

You can enjoy a large and fully-stocked house on 15 acres of mountain forest, with a deck and a great view — for less than the cost of a cramped hotel room.
Pricing starts at $150per night.

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