Category Archives: Design

Cars Will Think for Themselves

In a rare move, the world’s 20 largest automakers have come together and agreed to make AEB – (emergency braking) technology standard on all new cars they produce by September 1, 2022.

The system varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, but it’s typically built around a camera, a laser, or a radar that’s discreetly mounted either behind the rear-view mirror or somewhere on the front fascia, as pictured above on a Mercedes-Benz C-Class. It permanently scopes out the road ahead and warns the driver if it senses that a collision with another car is imminent, and it automatically applies the brakes if the driver doesn’t react in time.

The companies that signed the agreement represent 99 percent of the new car market in the United States alone. The list of participants includes BMW, Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Ford, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, the Volkswagen Group, Honda, Hyundai-Kia, Jaguar-Land Rover, Fiat-Chrysler, Volvo, Tesla, Subaru, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Mazda. The broad list ensures that consumers will benefit from AEB regardless of whether they spend $16,000 on a Nissan or $160,000 on a Porsche.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says this single move has the potential to reduce rear-end collisions in the U.S. by 40 percent. It’s also an important precedent that paves the way for car manufacturers to agree on standards for autonomous features in their vehicles without being prodded by their incumbent governments.

Sleepy drivers take note !

To your success.

Steve

Weed Free Soil – A Gardeners Paradise

This Weed-Killing Robot Makes Herbicides Obsolete

The Bosch BoniRob is a LIDAR-enabled robot that identifies weeds you don’t want and squashes them into the ground with impressive force. It can run for up to 24 hours at once, killing about two weeds a second.

According to Bosch, the robot is about the size of a small vehicle, and uses the same type of laser-radar vision system that Google’s self-driving cars use to navigate the world. BoniRob is programmed by being shown pictures of leaves from plants farmers want to harvest and differentiates them from weeds. Using machine learning—a form of artificial intelligence that allows it to make decisions based on what it’s been shown—it applies its own information to what it sees when it’s in the field, stamping down only on the weeds it’s been asked to eliminate. BoniRob could potentially rid farms of the need to use herbicides or other weed killers on crops, which have been seen as potentially harmful to humans.

Machine learning systems get better with more information, so with each new weed or plant it sees, BoniRob refines its interpretation of what each of them are, getting more advanced at doing its job each time. In tests on carrot patches, BoniRob stamped out about 90% of weeds, according to “Popular Science”.
BoniRob is currently being tested on real farmland, and IEEE Spectrum says that it can run autonomously for about a whole day before it runs out of fuel. Bosch intends to rent or sell the robot to farmers looking to cut down on labour costs. According to the company, farmers today can harvest about 3-4 times what they could from the same amount of land in the 1950s, and as our population continues to increase, we’ll have to find new ways to keep growing crops efficiently and safely.

This self-driven robot shows how machine learning and sensor technology can create better, more powerful agriculture robots. One day, robots like this one will eradicate the need for herbicides and pesticides.

Imagine a future with an army of self-driving BoniRobs could be all that’s needed to harvest our fields. Once self-driving lorries can bring the food to stores, and self-driving robots can stack it on supermarket shelves, just like in an Amazon warehouse hub; we’ll be able to have a completely self-driven robot farm-to-table meal. Future foody hipsters will be in heaven .

To your healthy future.

Steve

Jeans That Fit – At Last

Retail is going through a radical transformation and online purchasing has seen incredible exponential growth over the last 5 years as our lifestyle becomes more mobile online. Many start ups have started to experiment with how the market will play out next – but the most fundamental area that needs addressing are “returns” and that 15 lost minutes( in the dressing room) when sizing becomes a real problem on hitting your bottom line on customer refunds. A smart US start up “LikeAGlove” hopes to close that gap & to demystify online clothing shopping using a smart fabric. Its sensor-equipped, conductive fiber-woven leggings discreetly measure a woman’s figure and create an accurate digital representation of her figure. Shoppers can then instantly browse clothing of their choice in the exact sizes that will fit them.

This is a very important step up as a game changer ; Because of the large variance in women’s sizes between designers, it’s difficult to find a good selection of right-sized clothing online. LikeAGlove’s sensor-packed leggings make measurement accurate, private and, fundamentally easier. I see this company moving forward and partnering with other online retail disrupters out there ( maybe even me) with new ideas that get away from traditional bricks ‘n’ mortar shopping.

The company is hopeful that they’ll be able to expand the technology to include other types of clothing, like tops, dresses, and more.

If you’re in search of some seriously high-tech leggings that will simplify your search for your perfectly fitting pair of jeans, search no longer. Just grab a pair of LikeAGlove leggings.

I’ll be watching this company closer as I have a few ideas of my own that compliment the whole social shopping experience.

Hope the size works for you.

To your success

Steve

3D Print your Own Gold

Yes wouldn’t that be great I hear you say! But we’re getting one step closer

Trove is a platform that turns anyone into a fashion jewelery designer. It has 30 standard jewelery designs that users can customize as they please, right down to the metal choice. Trove’s partner Shapeways then 3D prints the jewelery mold and the final product.

Putting the customer directly in the driver’s seat, Trove takes its consumers into a CAD-like interface where budding jewelery designers can take a 360-degree look at the jewelry and make design choices, engravings, and more. This is one step up from the usual sector like medicine, construction and cars that have adopted this latest printing technology.

This is important because The Trove platform simplifies 3D design, and gives inquisitive consumers a hassle free entry into three dimensional modeling. Another small yet significant benefit: by letting customers try on the 3D printed plastic versions of their personalised jewelery, Trove also reduces bottom line losses due to product returns.

To you all going for Gold.

Steve

Kids Breakfast time …….. becomes a Virtual Experience!

Remember those days as a child when you tore open a new cereal packet to collect your next favourite plastic spaceman freebee.
Well science has just taken another leap in to the future of cereal branding .

Kellogg’s just launched a promotion in New Zealand in which customers can create their own Virtual Reality headsets out of Nutri-Grain boxes. The makeshift device is akin to Google Cardboard in that it uses your smartphone as the display. Scanning the box’s QR code will take you to the NG Bolt app, which contains three VR videos to watch.

It’s very important as this represents Demonetization in action as a disrupter to the value of currency as a unit — this VR headset is the price of a box of cereal. It’s also a creative marketing move for Kellogg’s to appeal to younger consumers and their parents. Leading the mental pathway of new technology and the rewards of informative consumer stimuli.

If you want to discuss this and other topics please drop me a line through the opt in box.

To your success

Steve

Turn Smog into Gemstones

I’ve just supported a great innovation on Kickstarter. The Largest Air Purifier Ever Built that Sucks Up Smog and Turns it Into Gemstones!

A very clever designer Daan Roosegaarde has unveiled the Smog Free Tower, a 23-foot air purifier that captures smog from the outside air and turns these smog particles into gemstones. The tower purifies 30,000 cubic meters of air each hour, and each gemstone is the product of roughly 1,000 cubic meters of air. Roosegaarde is currently raising funds via the crowdfunding site Kickstarter to cover the travel costs of transporting the air purifier to major cities like Beijing, Mumbai and Paris, with smog gemstone cufflinks and rings as backer prizes. So I’ll be getting a small cube to remind me about how I’m helping the planet by purifying the air in inner city environments.

The process taking place inside its walls powered by 1,400 watts of sustainable energy, which is comparable to a water boiler, and the studio says it hopes to one day integrate solar PVs into the design to power the process—which works not so differently than some ionic air purifiers. Roosegaarde explains; that the way it works is by charging the Smog Free Tower with a small positive current, an electrode will send positive ions into the air. These ions will attach themselves to fine dust particles. A negatively charged surface -the counter electrode- will then draw the positive ions in, together with the fine dust particles. The fine dust that would normally harm us, is collected together with the ions and stored inside of the tower. This technology manages to capture ultra-fine smog particles which regular filter systems fail to do.

I think this was an important project to get involved with because it demonstrates another example of how creative thinkers are transforming scarcity into abundance. This architectural feat appeals to me as its a blindingly obvious solution to a growing problem; your born with a fine set of lungs – it makesense to keep them clean. Unfortunately us humans through our industrial endeavours have polluted certain areas of the planet through the need of our ever expanding consumption of stuff; and this innovation marks a turning point to give something back to our congested communities. Environmentally it ticks many boxes and will set the scene for other concepts to support its success through crowdfunding, DIY innovators and other material based sciences. This is a project which has immense scalability; Can you imagine giant versions of these towers sucking in huge amounts of polluted air with the residue being used in the building industry or other sectors as a sustainable material.

This is truly exceptional and an example of an idea I get excited about and want to discuss. This really lights my inner fire. I hope this encourages you to comment & contribute about what could be next.

To your success.

Steve

Smartphones become Solar Panels

Transparent Batteries That Charge in the Sun Could Replace Smartphone Screens –

A group of smart Japanese techies have managed to improve the design of a transparent lithium-ion battery so that it’s now able to recharge itself when exposed to sunlight without the need for a separate solar cell.

The transparent battery was first developed by the researchers, led by Kogakuin University president and professor Mitsunobu Sato, back in 2013. The electrolyte used for the battery’s positive electrode is made mostly from lithium iron phosphate, while the electrolytes used for the negative electrode include lithium titanate, and lithium hexafluorophosphate a stronger chemical bond at subatomic level.

Those are all common ingredients used in Li-ion rechargeable batteries, but the thickness of these electrodes are just 80 to 90 nanometers, which allows a lot of light to pass through and makes these batteries almost completely transparent. Imagine that! Where else could this technological discovery be applied.

But by changing the chemical makeup of the negative electrode, the Japanese researchers have found a way to make these transparent batteries now recharge themselves in the presence of sunlight, or other bright sources of illumination, say a lamp or street light.

This is important because future iterations of this battery could become smart mirrors for buildings and vehicles that can auto-dim when it’s bright outside during the heat of the day, but also store power as they’re recharged by the sun. And as an extension of that idea, one day your smartphone’s display might even serve as an additional battery, using sunlight to charge the device whenever you’re outside.

Harvesting energy is becoming more and more portable. Have any ideas to join in the discussion?

Whats the next disruptive vision that will enter the solar market place?

To the next

Steve

Marty Mcfly would be proud ——— HoverBoard comes to life

We’ve all seen the trilogy of Back to The Future …we’ll those crafty scientists at Lexus tech have finally come up with a design that may just bring a dream to reality. The race has been on to develop a hoverboard by many companies over the years with a few falling short of production and application. But now in 2015 seems the year that hurdles have been overcome.

This Hoverboard is called Slide by Lexus and has been teased in a viral video released on you tube to millions of fans. Apparently more videos will be released during the summer.

The Hoverboard “uses magnetic levitation to achieve amazing frictionless movement.” with the added benefit of “liquid nitrogen cooled superconductors and permanent magnets combine to allow Lexus to create the impossible.”

The ‘Hoverboard’ by Lexus has of course got tech geeks excited all over and if you’re a ‘Back to The Future’ fan, you are likely one of those who got excited by the teaser video. I know my 7 year old son was who is a keen skateboarder.

Because Lexus has opted for a superconductor, this creates a different kind of magnetic field, one that does not die away …….. more on the physics of this in a latter post.

Magnets aside, the Lexus video does not really tell us much about if and when the ‘Slide’ hoverboard will really hit the market. Lexus has clarified that it isn’t looking to build a widely available hoverboard just yet.

Lexus spokesperson Maurice Dumand said “Back to the Future messed my whole generation up. The world so desperately wants someone to mass produce a hoverboard. Let’s be frank, it’s not novel. There are other hoverboards. To a degree, we weren’t expecting [the reaction].”

In short, BTTF fans should calm down. While the Lexus hoverboard is ‘real’, it’s not hitting the stores anytime soon. Like with many exponential ideas they have a purpose to fulfil design improvements in current tech and this may only be an experimental process that Lexus is going through to bolster their market position.

On the other hand there is the Hendo Hoverboard>>>…

http://hendohover.com

The technology that allows this to happen is called Magnetic Field Architecture( MFA). This involves electromagnets attached to the base of the board that repel any non-ferrous (i.e. does not contain a significant amount of iron) conductive surface.

Greg and Jill Henderson, who are behind the Hendo Hover project, believe that the hoverboard is just the first of many innovations this technology allows. “It enables a new generation of lift and motion technology that will change the way we view transportation,” the Hendersons explained. “Additional applications for MFA technology are virtually limitless – from business, to industry, to healthcare, and beyond.”

The company is hopeful that a model will be on sale in 2015 – coincidentally, the year in which Marty McFly rode around on his own hoverboard.

Christmas comes early for teenagers the world over 🙂 The application of this tech is definately one to watch and is a cue for a future Q & A on those of you wanting to join in the discussion.

Comments welcome in the chat box below.

Enjoy

Steve